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Vol. I, No. 2 January, 1916 

Smith College Studies 
in History 



JOHN SPENCER BASSETT 
SIDNEY BRADSHAW FAY 

Editors 



THE OPERATION OF THE FREEDMEN'S 
BUREAU IN SOUTH CAROLINA 



By LAURA JOSEPHINE WEBSTER 

i \ 



NORTHAMPTON, MASS. 

Published Quarterly by the 
Department of History of Smith College 



93 









CONTENTS 



CHAPTER I— Preliminaries 

PAGE 

1. Steps leading up to governmental supervision of the 

negroes in South Carolina 67 

2. Supervision by the treasury department of plantation 

work on the sea islands of South Carolina 69 

3. Supervision by the war department of plantation work 

on the sea islands 74 

4. Negroes at the camps 75 

5. Education of the negroes 80 

6. Sherman and the negroes 82 

7. Conclusion 83 

CHAPTER II — Legislation and Organization 

1. Terms of the first freedmen's bureau bill 85 

2. General organization 85 

3. Organization in South Carolina 86 

4. Hindrances 87 

5. Reorganization 89 

6. Saxton replaced by Scott as assistant commissioner. ... 90 

7. Act of July 16, 1866 91 

8. Gradual abolition of the powers of the freedmen's bureau 92 

CHAPTER III — Distribution and Restoration of Land 

1 . Land held by the national government 93 

2. Disposal of land by the freedmen's bureau 93 

3. Negroes' belief in gifts of 40 acres and a mule 94 

4. Disposal of the negroes at the coast 95 

5. Restoration of lands 97 

6. Records of restoration 102 

7. Disadvantages of the government's actions 103 



4 



IV 



1. 

2. 
3. 

4. 
5. 



Table of Contents 

CHAPTER IV — Labor. Justice and Marriage Relations 

Labor conditions in 1865 105 

Administration of justice 109 

Labor conditions in 1866 115 

Labor conditions in 1867 116 

Labor conditions in 1868 117 

I To be continued in the next number of the Studies) 




South Carol i v a 



Map of South Carolina, showing centres of the work 
of the Freedmen's Bureau. 



The Operation of the Freedmen's Bureau 
in South Carolina 



CHAPTER I 

Preliminaries 

November 7, 1861, Commodore Dupont stormed and cap- 
tured Fort Walker at Hilton Head, South Carolina. United 
States troops, under command of General W. T. Sherman, were 
immediately landed and took possession of Hilton Head, and 
soon afterward of Saint Helena and the entire island of Port 
Royal. 1 To escape falling into the hands of the enemy, the slave 
holders in the captured districts and adjacent islands fled to 
Charleston and the interior. They took with them the more intelli- 
gent of their slaves; the remainder, with the abandoned planta- 
tions, were left to the enemy. The region occupied by the Union 
forces consisted of some of the most valuable territory of the en- 
tire South, for only along the coast of South Carolina, Georgia 
and Texas can sea island cotton be produced. On these islands 
slavery had existed in ks most absolute form, and the negroes 
there were of the lowest order of intelligence. 2 

Before leaving, the masters had warned the negroes to avoid 
the "Yankees," saying that if the latter had the opportunity, 
they would take them to Cuba to sell them again into slavery. 
Nevertheless, at Hilton Head a large portion of the negroes 
flocked to the piers to welcome the Union forces, who reported 
that they came ready for their journey, wherever it might be, 
each with his worldly possessions tied up in a little bundle. 3 Much 



1 War of the Rebellion. Official Records, Series I., Vol. VI., pp. 186- 
193. Schouler. History of the United States, VI., 139; Nicolay and Hay, 
Abraham Lincoln, V., 14-20; Greeley, The American Conflict, I., 604-605. 

2 Reid, After the War, 94-95; Pierce, The Freedmen at Port Royal, 
Atlantic Monthly, XII., 301 (Sept., 1863). 

'Greeley, Trie American Conflict, I., 605. Schouler, History of the 
United States, VI., 139. 



68 Smith College Studies in History 

to their surprise the soldiers remained, and the negro population, 
gaining confidence as the days passed without evidence of co- 
ercion, began to rejoice in the absence of compulsory labor. They 
appropriated to their own use the potatoes and corn in the store- 
houses of their former masters and settled down to the enjoy- 
ment of their "year of Jubilee." It was in allusion to this period 
that the following poem was written by John Greenleaf Whittier : 

"( He Massa on he trabbels gone; 
1 1c leaf de land behind : 
De Lord's breff blow him furder on 
Like corn-shuck in de wind. 
We own de hoe, we own de plough, 
We own de hands dat hold; 
We sell de pig, we sell de cow. 
But nebber chile be sold. 

"De yam will grow, de cotton blow, 
We'll liab de rice an' corn : 
O nebber you fear, if nebber you hear 
De driver blow his horn !'" 

The abandoned homes of the planters and of their overseers 
were soon filled with negro refugees who flocked to the Union 
lines in great numbers."' It was reported on November 9 that 
150 of them had come in two days. 6 To these childlike people, 
freedom meant simply a perpetual cessation of labor, and General 
Sherman could not induce them to exert themselves sufficiently to 
carry on the work of the camp. He complained that the sudden 
change from servitude to apparent freedom was more than their 
intellects could stand. 7 Their daily increasing numbers and de- 
creasing resources caused him, on February 6, 1862, to appeal to 
"the benevolent and philanthropic of the land" to relieve the 
immediate wants of "this unfortunate and . . . interesting 
class of people." At that time he estimated that there were at 
least 9000 negroes within his lines. s At the same time he applied 

' V. " v Port Royal." 

'Pierce, rhe Freedmen at Fort Royal, Atl. Mon., XII., 302. (Sept.. 

•Official Records, Series 1.. Vol. VI., pp. 1S6-187. 
'Ibid., pp. 204-205. 

nan had first suggested this plan in a letter written Jan. 
15. 1862. Ibid., p. 218. 



The Freedmen's Bureau in South Carolina 69 

to headquarters for authority to put into operation a plan for the 
superintendence of agriculture and education within his depart- 
ment. 9 

Meanwhile Salmon P. Chase, secretary of the treasury, and a 
leading anti-slavery spirit had determined upon a plan of action 
similar to General Sherman's. Late in December, 1861, he sent 
Edward L. Pierce to visit the captured sea islands and to report 
to him upon the condition of the negroes there. 10 Pierce was a 
young abolitionist of Boston, who had formerly studied in Chase's 
law office and who had superintended the labor of the "contra- 
bands" at Fortress Monroe the preceding summer. 11 

Pierce set out for South Carolina January 13, 1862. He com- 
pleted a detailed report of the result of his observation on Feb- 
ruary 10, 12 and forwarded it to Secretary Chase. His con- 
clusions, based upon a three weeks' examination of agricultural 
conditions and of the life and disposition of the negroes, he him- 
self acknowledged as necessarily uncertain. 13 However, his re- 
port shows careful investigation and a desire to conserve all the 
resources of the country in the interests of the national gov- 
ernment. 

Contrary to expectations, he found many of the negroes on 
the plantations indifferent to freedom and unwilling to fight for 
it. Some of them, recalling the prophecies of their masters that 
they would be taken to Cuba, had fled in alarm at the approach 
of the army. Others were determined to remain on the planta- 
tions and "take their chances" with the soldiers. 14 No system 
of labor had as yet been established on the plantations. Agents, 
sent by the treasury department to superintend the "gathering, 
preparing and transporting to market of the cotton and other 
property" found by the army, had got the negroes to assist them, 



9 Hart, Salmon P. Chase, 258. 

10 Pierce, AH. Mon., XII., 296 (Sept. 1863). 

11 Wilson, Rise and Fall of the Slave Power in America, III., 457. 

12 The report was commenced on Feb. 3, 1862. Moore, The Rebellion 
Record, Companion Volume, 302. 

13 Ibid. 

" Ibid., 308-309. 



70 Smith College Studies in History 

but the service was performed in such a dilatory manner that 
Pierce assumed the defensive in speaking of it. 15 

At the military camps at Hilton Head and Beaufort, barracks 
had been erected for the negroes, and a regular system of labor 
had been devised. At Hilton Head, Barnard K. Lee, Jr., of 
Boston, had been in charge of the laborers since November, 
1861. Definite arrangements had been made with the negroes to 
work for wages at rates regulated by General Sherman. Me- 
chanics were to receive from eight to twelve dollars a month and 
other laborers from four to eight dollars. In addition, each 
laborer was given a ration of food for himself. Food and cloth- 
ing for his family were furnished and the value was deducted 
from his wages. At the time of Pierce's report, 472 laborers were 
thus enrolled. Of these, 137 were on the pay roll, and the amount 
of money due them for labor during the first three months 
amounted to nearly $1000. The failure to pay the promised 
wages, probably due to a lack of small currency, naturally tended 
to increase the negroes' native aversion to work. 16 Although the 
customary means of enforcing discipline upon the blacks was not 
used by the superintendent of Hilton Head, Yankee ingenuity was 
not slow in finding a substitute for the lash and the whipping post. 
Pierce reports that "the delinquent, if a male, is sometimes made 
to stand on a barrel, or, if a woman, is put in a dark room ;"' and 
he added that such discipline proved successful. 17 

At Beaufort, William Harding, a citizen of Daufuskie Island, 
South Carolina, had recently been appointed superintendent, but 
because of the delay in his appointment, little had as yet been ac- 
complished. The Reverend Solomon Peck of Roxbury. Massa- 
chusetts, had established a school there, January 8, 1862, and was 
maintaining it largely at his own expense. The school then con- 
tained 60 pupils. 18 

As a result of his observations. Pierce recommended to Secre- 



'II :. Docs.. 37 Cong., 3 Sess., Vol. VII.. No. 72, p. 1. Moore, 

Companion Volume, 307. 

"Moore, Companion Volume, 313. 

"Ibid., 313. 

"Ibid., 314. Ex. Docs., 41 Cong., 2 Sess., Vol. 6. No. 142. p. 11. 



The Freedmen's Bureau in South Carolina 71 

tary Chase the following plan for the cultivation of the 195 planta- 
tions then in control of the army in South Carolina. Superinten- 
dents of plantations should be appointed and "given adequate 
power to enforce a paternal discipline, to require a proper amount 
of labor, cleanliness, sobriety and better habits of life, and general- 
ly to promote the moral and intellectual culture of their wards." 19 
For each large plantation there should^ be a superintendent, 
while several small ones could be placed under the control 
of one man. A director-general should inspect the work 
of all the plantations, and a uniform system of wages was 
to be determined. The government should provide teachers 
for the elementary branches of education, and missionaries should 
be encouraged. This plan, Pierce thought, would render the 
negro self-supporting, and would train him for citizenship. He 
pointed out to Secretary Chase that haste was necessary, as desti- 
tution was imminent without the assistance of the government. 
When he wrote, the time for planting had already arrived. 20 

Upon the completion of his report, Pierce went to Washing- 
ton. There he interviewed Secretary Chase, President Lincoln 
and several congressmen in behalf of his plans for the negroes 
on the sea islands. His report was approved by Secretary Chase, 
but even his personal friends in congress refused to act in the 
matter, and President Lincoln, then deeply concerned over the 
condition of his son, seemed impatient at being troubled with 
"such details." However, on February 19, 1862, Pierce was ap- 
pointed by Secretary Chase as special agent of the treasury de- 
partment to superintend "the culture of plantations and the em- 
ployment of the laborers thereon." 21 Since an appropriation 
could not be obtained from congress, a plan of cooperation was 
arranged with the benevolent societies of the North, whereby 
superintendents of plantations and teachers were to be paid by 



" It is interesting to notice the similarity of this plan to the paternal 
oversight previously exercised over the negroes by their masters. 

™ Moore, Companion Volume, 311, 312. 

21 Pierce, Atlantic Monthly, XII.. 296-297 (Sept., 1863); Hart, Salmon 
P. Chase, 259; House Ex. Docs., 37 Cong., 3 Sess., Vol. VII., No. 72 p. 2. 



72 Smith College Studies in History 

them, while subsistence, transportation and quarters would be 
furnished by the government. -- 

A word must be said about the philanthropic societies without 
whose help the work inaugurated by Pierce would have been 
impossible. While still at Port Royal, he had appealed for help 
to friends in Boston, which resulted in the organization there, 
on February 7, of The Educational Commission. The Freed- 
men's Relief Association was organized in New York February 
20, and Philadelphia followed, March 3, with The Port Royal 
Relief Committee. Soon afterwards numerous similar societies 
sprang up throughout the North and West, and even in Great 
Britain. 23 These societies at first provided the funds for the 
employment of both superintendents and teachers, but after 
July 1, 1862, the government undertook the payment of super- 
intendents from the sale of confiscated cotton. Besides con- 
tributions of money, the societies furnished quantities of pro- 
visions of all kinds.- 1 

.March 3, 1862, Pierce embarked from New York with a com- 
pany of 41 men and 12 women, among whom he said "were some 
of the choicest young men of New England, fresh from Harvard, 
Yale and Brown, and from the divinity schools of Andover and 
Cambridge. . . There were some of whom the world was 

lie worthy, and to whom ... I delight to pay the tribute 
(if my respect and admiration." 25 John Murray Forbes, who 
happened to be travelling on the same vessel, gives in a letter 
written March 4. the following description of his fellow voy- 
agers: "Our passengers consist chiefly of the 'villaintropic' 
society . . . ; bearded and mustached and odd-looking men, 



' Moore, Companion Volume, 315. The government advances were 
made by the war department. House Ex. Docs., 37 Cong., 3 Sess., Vol. 
\ II.. X... 72. p. 2. Official Records, Ser. I., Vol. VI., p. 227. 

e aggregate contribution from Great Britain amounted to $800.- 
000. I Inward, Autobiography, II., 196; Wilson. Rise and Fall of the 
Slave Power in America, 111.. 468. 

"Pierce, Atlantic Monthly, XII., 297 (Sept., 1863) ; Wilson, Slave 
r, III., 464-471. 

Ex. Docs., 41 Cong.. 2 Sess.. Vol. 6, No. 142. p. 4; Pierce, Atlantic 
Monthly. XII.. 298, 299 (Sept., 1863). 



The Freedmen's Bureau in South Carolina 73 

with odder looking women." 2 " This company reached Beaufort 
March 9, 1862, and the members were soon assigned by the special 
agent to their different fields of labor as teachers, nurses and 
superintendents. "During the first year they furnished 91,834 
garments, 35,829 books and pamphlets, 5,895 yards of cloth, 
$3,000 worth of farming implements and seeds, and had about 
3,000 scholars under instruction." 27 The superintendent found 
that the negroes remaining on the plantations had in most in- 
stances planted patches of corn and potatoes. With difficulty 
they were prevailed upon to resume the cultivation of cotton, 
on the promise of payment for the care of this crop which hereto- 
fore had caused them the hardest labor, and from which they had 
received no benefit. 2S 

Many difficulties impeded the work of the special agent. The 
lateness of the season when the superintendents arrived, the 
negroes' lack of confidence in the promise of wages, 29 and the 
scarcity of agricultural equipment' 50 all seriously handicapped the 
enterprise. But by far the greatest hindrance was the feeling of 
opposition on the part of the government employees already in 
the field. From November until March the soldiers and cotton 
agents had enjoyed sole possession of the conquered territory. 
When a company of missionaries appeared, authorized by the 
government to claim all abandoned property, the newcomers were 
regarded by many as interlopers, and received the derisive term 



28 Hughes, Life and Recollections of Jno. Murray Forbes, I., 295, 296. 

27 Ex. Docs., 41 Cong., 2 Sess., Vol. 6, No. 142, pp. 4, 5. 

28 Moore, Companion Volume, 315-328. Upon the flight of the planters, 
the slaves' hatred of the cotton industry showed itself in a savage de- 
struction of cotton gins. Pierce, Atlantic Monthly, XII., 308 (Sept., 1863). 

29 This feeling was justifiable, since the cotton agents had not yet 
kept their promise of paying the negroes for baling and transporting the 
cotton. Moore, Companion Volume, 320. 

30 Until after the middle of April, the plowing had been done largely 
by hand, since the planters in their flight had taken with them nearly all 
of the mules. The middle of April, ninety mules, sent from New York 
by the government, reached Beaufort, and were distributed among the 
plantations. Tools and farming implements were also sent from the 
North. Moore, Companion Volume, 319. 



74 iTH College Studies in History 

of "Gideonites." 31 This feeling is well expressed in a letter 
written in April by John Murray Forbes to Charles Sumner, in 
which he said : "The undercurrent against the commission here 
is very strong, even among those who ought to know better. First 
the cotton agents think their interests, and their personal use of 
negroes, horses and houses hurt thereby ; then the settlers and 
finally the military, are all prejudiced, especially the subordi- 
nates ; the lower you go the worse the feeling, the generals and 
those high up doing, I believe, all they can, and showing, so far 
as I can judge, a good spirit." 32 

This hostility manifested itself in petty annoyances, in per- 
sonal violences, and in a general lack of harmony between the 
departments. An example of the failure to cooperate with the 
military authorities is worthy of notice. On May 12, 1862, the 
superintendents, much against their will, aided in carrying out 
an order of General Hunter's requiring that all able-bodied 
negroes between the ages of eighteen and forty-five should be 
sent to Hilton Head to be armed. 33 This was done amid the 
protests of the conscripts and the loud lamentations of their 
families, and to the detriment of crops then under cultivation. 
These crops, deprived of 600 "full hands," were left dependent 
upon the work of women, children and old men. 

Since this lack of harmony existed it is probably well that on 
June 28, 1862, the control of plantations was transferred from 
the treasury to the war department. 34 Brigadier General Rufus 
Saxton was assigned by the secretary of war to duty in the de- 
partment of the south with directions to take possession of aband- 
oned plantations and to make rules and regulations for the cul- 
tivation of the land. 85 General Saxton was a native of Massa- 
chusetts and represented the feeling of that state in regard to 



1 Pierce claimed for the title Gideonites "just rank with the honored 
titles of Puritan and Methodist." Atlantic Monthly. XII., 298 (Sept., 
1863 

'Hughes, Life and Recollections of Tohn Murray Forbes, I., pp. 300, 
301. 

ial Records, Ser. III.. Vol. II.. No, 123, pp. 52 <•/ scq. 
■ ml, Autobiography, II., 178. 

ords, Ser. 111., Vol. II.. Serial 123. pp. 27. 152. 153. 



3« 



The Freedmen's Bureau in South Carolina 75 

negro privileges. His appointment was made at the personal re- 
quest of Secretary Chase. 30 

Although the captured plantations were now under different 
management, Pierce's plans were largely followed, with a few 
changes as to general supervision. Port Royal and adjacent 
islands were arranged in three divisions, and a general super- 
intendent appointed over each, with subordinate local superin- 
tendents in charge of the plantations. 37 A plan, begun by Pierce, 
was carried out, whereby two acres of land were assigned to each 
working hand, with five-sixteenths of an acre additional for each 
child. On this the negroes were to raise corn and potatoes suffi- 
cient for their own subsistence. In payment for the use of the 
land and of the cattle necessary for its cultivation, they were to 
work the government's cotton fields and to cultivate additional 
food supplies for the plowmen, the superintendents and the dis- 
abled ones of the plantations. In case any persons refused to 
work in the cotton fields, they were charged rent at the rate of 
two dollars a month for the houses and lands used. 38 Rations 
were furnished where necessary, but Nordhoff asserts that none 
were supplied to those who were destitute by their own fault. 39 

The system of wages used on the plantations is not clear, but 
it seems to have been as follows : At first Pierce assigned to each 
laborer in the cotton fields one dollar an acre as an advance on 
his wage account. 40 In March, 1863, Nordhoff wrote that twenty- 
five cents was paid for each day's work in the cotton fields, the 
nature and extent of the work being strictly defined. He re- 
ported that the negroes were paid in addition two and a half 
cents a pound for the cotton each raised and picked. 41 It will be 



30 Hart. Salmon P. Chase, 259. 

37 Official Records, Ser. III., Vol. IV., Serial 125, pp. 1023. 1024. 

38 Nordhoff, The Freedmen of S. C, 13-15; Howard, Autobiography. II., 
178; Pierce. Atlantic Monthly. XII.. 308 (Sept., 1863). 

39 Nordhoff, The Freedmen of S. C, 14. 

40 Moore, Companion Volume, 320. 

"Nordhoff, The Freedmen of S. C, 14. Pierce. Atlantic Monthly, 
XII., 308 (Sept., 1863). According to Pierce, a standard day's work 
could, by beginning early, be performed by a healthy and active hand by 
noon. 



76 Smith College Studies in History 

remembered that work on the government's cotton fields was ac- 
ted in payment of rent for the negroes' houses and patches on 
which they raised their own food supply. Thus provision was 
made, not only for the negroes to become independent of the gov- 
ernment rations, but that they should have a certain amount of 
spending money. Stores were established for the use of the 
1 ilacks at various places on the islands, and one of the most 
encouraging signs of negro advancement was their growing de- 
mand for the accessories of civilization. 4 - 

In August, 1862, an event occurred which caused great loss 
to the work on the plantations. Ordering the cavalry from the 
department of the south to aid McClellan necessitated the aband- 
onment of James, Edisto and Daufuskie Islands, where were 
2.000 acres of growing corn, potatoes and cotton. Fifteen hun- 
dred people were removed from these islands to Saint Helena 
I -land, where, according to Saxton's report, there were neither 
proper accommodations nor adequate employment for them. To 
add to his embarrassment, 600 people from Georgetown and 175 
from Hutchison's Island were also sent to Saint Helena. 43 The 
withdrawal of troops and consequent overcrowding of the ne- 
groes resulted in the formation of the first colored regiment of 
the United States Army." Feeling the need of protection. Sax- 
ton applied to Secretary Stanton for permission to organize, from 
the "contrabands" in his department, a force not exceeding 5.000 
able-bodied men. His request was granted with the understand- 
ing that the troops were to be used to guard the plantations and 
make incursions into the hostile territory for the purpose of 
bringing away negroes and thus diminishing the strength of the 
enemy. 1 "' The regiment organized by General Saxtoii. known as 
the Firsl Regiment of South Carolina Volunteers, was mustered 



'" Pierce, Atlantic Monthly, XII., pp. 310-311 (Sept.. 1863); Xordhoff, 
Th( [men of S. C„ 20. 

I Records, Ser. 1.. Vol. XIV., p. 375. 
'The colored troop-, conscripted by General Hunter. May, 1862, were 
nd wire disbanded August 11. 1862. Pierce. Atlantic 
II.. 312 (Sept., 1863); Official Records, Ser. 111.. Vol. II.. No. 
123, p '.''5. 

irds, Ser. I.. Vol. XIV.. pp. .v-4-378. 



The Freedmen's Bureau in South Carolina 77 

into the service of the United States in October, 1862, and was 
placed under the command of Colonel Thomas Wentworth Hig- 
ginson." 1 

Instead of the 5,000 volunteers for which Saxton had asked, 
the new regiment numbered only about 860 men. 47 The unwil- 
lingness of most of the negroes to serve in the army was noticed 
by Pierce on his first visit to the islands in the winter of 1862. 
He found this especially true of negroes on the plantations, where 
initiative and self-reliance had been largely suppressed. "Black 
men have been kept down so like dogs, that they would run be- 
fore white men," the negroes told him. Nevertheless, he reported 
a few cases of their brave resistance. 48 Throughout the war, 
5,462 negro troops were furnished by South Carolina. Though 
at first their enlistment was regarded by many as a worthless ex- 
periment, on the whole they proved satisfactory soldiers. With 
the abandonment of 2,000 acres of cultivated land and the with- 
drawal of many of the best laborers to serve in the army, it is 
not surprising that the agricultural output for the first year was 
disappointing. The cotton crop amounted to 50,000 pounds of 
ginned sea island cotton (about 500 bales), then worth in the 
Market $50,000. Food had been raised for the negroes and a 
supply of corn and fodder had been furnished the army. 49 

General Saxton was very desirous that the freedmen 50 should 
own land. Provision had been made by acts of Congress for sale, 
to the highest bidder, of land forfeited to the United States for 
non-payment of direct taxes. 51 This tax had been levied on all 
the States, but the levy had been disregarded by those in the 
Southern Confederacy. In consequence, when any of the terri- 



"Ibid., Ser. III.. Vol. IV., Xo. 125, p. 1027. 

41 Ibid., Ser. III., Vol. III., No. 124, p. 20. 

4 " Moore, Companion Volume, 308; William, Geo. W., History of the 
Negro Race in America, II., 300. 

"Official Records, Ser. III., Vol. IV, No. 125, p. 1024; Xordhoff. The 
Freedmen of S. C, 14; Pierce, Atlantic Monthly, XIL, 299 (Sept., 1863). 

50 All slaves of rebel masters on places occupied by the U. S. forces, 
or escaping thereto, were declared free by act of congress, July 17, 1862. 
Statutes at Large. XIL, 591. 

"Statutes at Large, XIL, 422-426, 589-592, 640. 641 (Acts of June 7, 
1862, July 17, 1862 and Feb. 6. 1863). 



78 itii College Studies in History 

tory of the Southern States fell into the hands of the Union, all 
proceed- from the sale of such land were kept as partial compen- 
lebt of the entire state. In March, 1863, about 
one- fourth of the abandoned plantations in South Carolina were 
sold at auction. Of the 47 plantations sold, 6 were purchased by 
neg the remainder by Northerners who cultivated them with 

hired negro labor. 62 

ptember, 1863, President Lincoln issued orders for the sale 
to the highest bidder of all the unreserved lands. A small por- 
tion was set apart to be offered to negro families at private sale 
for $1.25 per acre. According to Saxton's report, this arrange- 
ment could provide for less than one-half of the negroes, with 
allotments of two acres each."' 1 A better provision was intended 
in an order issued by the president to the direct tax commis- 

ners, December 30, 1863, so worded as to give the negroes 
preemption rights to "any lands in the district of South Carolina 
owned by the United States." To one person was to be allowed 
one, or at the option of the preemptor, two tracts of twenty acres 

h, for which he should pay SI. 25 an acre. Two-fifths of the 
price was to be paid on receipt of the certificate of preemption, 
the remainder on receipt of the deed." 1 Saxton at once com- 
municated these instructions to the negroes, who joyfully staked 
out allotments for nearly all the land in the district and applied 
to the commissioners for the certificates of preemption. Although 
the negroes tendered the payment required by the president's 
order, the majority of the tax commissioners declared the order 
illegal, and refused to receive the money. The instructions were 
soon afterward suspended by the secretary of the treasury, and 
the lands sold to other purchasers. 55 Thus ended the first at- 
tempt of the negroes to own the abandoned and confiscated land 

South Carolina. 

Although a large part of the land had been sold in March. 

lopaedia, 1863, p. 430; Pierce, Atlantic Monthly, XII., 
' I). 

irds, Ser. 111.. Vol. IV.. No. 125. p. 1025. 
"Ibid., p. 1 
" Ibid., p. 1 



The Freedmen's Bureau in South Carolina 79 

1863, Saxton was able to report for that year that 470,000 pounds 
of seed cotton had been raised on the plantations still retained by 
the government. When ginned, this would leave about 150,000 
pounds, three times the amount produced in 1862. Saxton 
stated that the cotton crop of the year would considerably more 
than meet all of his expenses. In addition, the negroes had raised 
food enough for their own needs. Rations, however, had been 
supplied to the destitute refugees who had come into the Union 
lines since the planting season. 56 

The following year, 1864, Saxton's powers were very much 
limited. The land was sold, or else passed into the hands of the 
direct tax commissioners, so that the supervision of plantations 
ceased. He still maintained authority over "regulations for the 
sanitary condition and police of the department, and for the 
protection of the freedmen in their industry and its products. 
To secure justice between the negroes and their employers, he 
instituted a system of written contracts, obligatory upon all who 
employed the freedmen in agriculture. These contracts were 
signed by both parties, witnessed by his superintendents and sub- 
ject to his approval. He also established for the freedmen, Au- 
gust 27, 1864. the South Carolina Savings Bank at Beaufort, 
where by the close of the year $65,000 had been deposited. By 
refusing to allow the negroes to sell their cotton until they had 
obtained a certificate from the superintendent, saying that the 
sale had been fairly made, he protected them from unscrupulous 
purchasers. He also ordered that no cotton should be shipped 
from the department until he was satisfied that the negroes had 
received their just share for labor expended thereon. 57 

Except for Pierce's report of February 3, 1862, in regard to 
the regulation of negro labor and education at Beaufort and 
Hilton Head, 58 we have so far confined our discussion to the 
condition of the negroes on the plantations. 5 ' J Pierce's authority 



"Ibid., pp. 118, 119. 
" Ibid., pp. 1022-1023. 
58 See pages 4, 5 above. 

9 The organization of negro troops was closely allied to the subject, 
as it was to protect the plantations that they were enlisted. 



. v " Smith College Studies in History 

was over the plantation negroes only, and until the transfer of 
supervision to the war department, July 1, 1862, regulations 
for the negroes at the army posts were made by the quar- 
termaster's department. 60 After the transfer, the same depart- 
ment seems to have continued its supervision over the negroes 
at the army posts, with a general oversight exercised by Saxton. 61 
Nordhoff wrote in 1863 that the negroes had done almost all the 
work in the quartermaster's department 62 and in December. 1864, 

.ton reported that numbers of the negroes were engaged as 
"mechanics, employees in the quartermaster's department, house 
and officers' servants, and in various handicrafts." 03 

At Hilton Head an interesting experiment was tried by the 
military authorities. Half an hour's ride from the camp, lands 
were set aside for a negro village, known as Mitchelville in honor 
of General ( >rmsby M. Mitchel. Its population was made up en- 
tirely of negroes with a well organized town government in which 
all the officers were negroes, and all. except the mayor and treas- 
urer, were elected by them. It is interesting to note that the 
common council of the village required all children between the 
ages of six and fifteen to attend school regularly, "except in cases 
where their services are absolutely necessary for the support of 
their parents, of which the teacher is made the judge."''' 1 Thus, 
in the negro village of Mitchelville, was established the first com- 
pulsory education law in South Carolina. 

During the three and a half years of military occupancy, 
earnest efforts were being made to provide educational advan- 
tages for all the negro children on the sea islands. It will be re- 
membered that the philanthropic societies had undertaken to pro- 
vide and support teachers, while transportation, quarters and 
subsistence were to be furnished by the government. 66 Before 



House Ex. Dues., 37 Cong., 3 Sess., Vol. VII., No. 72, p. 2; Moore, 
ipanion Volume, 316. 

< ords, Ser. III.. Vol. IV., No. 125, p. 1024. 
. 3. 
ifficia! Records, Ser. III.. Vol. IV.. No. 125, p. 1024. 
r ' Reid, Whitelaw, Alter the War. 89-90; Fleming, Doc. Hist, of Recon- 
stru tion, I.. 73-75. 

e pp. 71-73 above. 



The Frkkomkn's Bureau in South Carolina 81 

the arrival of Pierce's first delegation, March 9, 1862, schools had 
been established at Beaufort and Hilton Head.' 1 " Most of the 
women and a few of the men of this delegation were assigned as 
teachers to various parts of the islands, but until the following 
autumn not more than a dozen schools had been established. This 
was due largely to the intense summer heat and to the scarcity of 
teachers. Some teachers, who had come in the first delegation, 
returned home during the summer, thus causing schools only just 
established to be abandoned. ,1T The position of teacher in negro 
schools was not desirable, except to one imbued with missionary 
zeal. To small salaries and personal discomforts were added ab- 
sence of all social enjoyments and the ill-concealed contempt of 
the army. Some of the teachers who responded to the call of 
the missionary societies represented the highest culture of the 
North. 68 

In the fall of 1862 educational plans on the islands were re- 
vised, and about 3,000 scholars were reported under instruction 
during that year. 69 In 1863 Pierce, who was on the islands from 
March 25 to May 10, stated that there were more than 30 schools 
in the territory, conducted by 40 or 45 teachers. He found the 
more advanced pupils studying the second reader, elementary 
arithmetic and geography. It is interesting to note that the germ 
of the present industrial education of the negro existed in Beau- 
fort, where a New York woman was teaching sewing to 113 
colored girls. The negroes showed an earnest desire for educa- 
tion and were often willing to make sacrifices for its acquisition. 
Sometimes the older negroes came for instruction after school 
hours and studied in the intervals of labor. 70 Negro soldiers had 
their own schools, superintended by the officers, 71 and when 
Northerners bought land, they often established schools on the 



' Ex. Docs.. 41 Cong., 2 Sess., Vol. 6, No. 142, p. 11. 

"Pierce. Atlantic Monthly, XII.. 303 (Sept., 1863). 

"'•Ibid., pp. 303-307; Official Records, Ser. III., Vol. IV, No. 125, 
p. 1027. 

ca Ex. Docs., 41 Cong., 2 Sess., Vol. 6, No. 142, p. 5. 

"Pierce, Atlantic Monthly, XII., pp. 303-308 (Sept.. 1863) ; The Nation, 
Vol. I.. 746 (Dec. 14, 1865). 

71 Report of Joint Committee on Reconstruction, Part II., pp. 249, 250. 



82 Smith College Studies in History 

plantations at their own expense. Mr. C. F. P. Bancroft, pro- 
prietor of 13 plantations, established five free schools, which were 
attended by 300 pupils. 7 - During the latter part of the period 
under consideration, the United States tax commissioners super- 
vised several schools maintained by them from the proceeds of 
rent obtained from forfeited lands. 73 

The real work of these negro schools can not be estimated by 
the proficiency in reading, writing and arithmetic attained by the 
pupils. The lessons they learned in cleanliness, industry and 
patriotism were of much greater value to this newly emanci- 
pated race. The thought of negro children, eagerly grasping the 
rudiments of knowledge, before withheld from them, appealed 
strongly to the sentiment of the North and called forth from 
Whittier the following song written for the schools of Saint 
Helena Island : 

"The very oaks are greener clad, 
The waters brighter smile ; 
Oh, never shone a day so glad 
On sweet Saint Helen's Isle ! 

"For none in all the world before 
Were ever glad as we, — 
We're free on Carolina's shore, 
We're all at home and free!" 14 

On General Sherman's famous march to the sea, thousands 
of negroes followed his army. At Savannah he was confronted 
with the problem of what to do with this host of illiterate people, 
dependent upon him for support. He sent a thousand of them to 
Saxton at I lean fort. 7 "' but disposing of them even in this whole- 
sale manner far from settled the problem. 

Finally, as a result of a conference with Secretary Stanton, he 
issued, on January 16, 1865, his celebrated special field order 
number 15. It reserved for the settlement of the negroes the 
inlands from Charleston south and the abandoned rice fields for 



J \imual Cyclopaedia, 1863, p. 430; Howard, Autobiography, II.. 192; 
The Nation, I..' 747 (Dec. 14. 1865). 
• Ibid., 227 t \m.. 24, 1865). 

" Pierce, Atlantic Monthly, XII., 304 (Sept, 1863). 
"Harper's Weekly, IX.. 50 (Jan. 28, 1865). 



The Freedmen's Bureau in South Carolina 83 

30 miles inland. At Beaufort and Hilton Head the blacks were 
to be allowed to remain in their chosen or accustomed occupa- 
tions, but on the islands no white person, except military officers 
and soldiers detailed for duty, could reside. It provided for 
allotments of not more than 40 acres of land to negro families, 
in the possession of which they were to be protected by the mili- 
tary authorities until such time as they could protect themselves, 
or until Congress should "regulate their titles." Saxton was ap- 
pointed inspector of settlements and plantations, with authority 
to furnish to each head of a family a possessory title to his appor- 
tionment of land. The order definitely stated that no change was 
intended or desired in the settlement then on Beaufort Island, 
and that rights to property before acquired should not be affect- 
ed. 76 Acting under this order. Saxton settled not only the 
negroes already in his district but hundreds who were lured 
there by the fame of this freedmen's paradise. 

At a time when many opposing theories were held in regard to 
the rights of the negro and his possibilities of development, the 
three years' experiment on the sea islands of South Carolina was 
of great importance. The results did not reach the expectations 
of the extreme champions of the negro. They had believed and 
taught that all that was needed was to release him from servitude 
and oppression and he would quickly prove himself the equal of 
the white man. To such theorists, the reports from the sea is- 
lands, though unduly exalting the negro, revealed the fact that 
even in freedom and as the ward of the nation, the characteristics 
of servility, indolence and improvidence persisted. For the 
Southerners also, the experiment had its lesson. Many had be- 
lieved the negro incapable of advancement and useless as a free 
laborer. On the sea islands it had been proved that he would 
work without compulsion. Many negroes had become entirely 
self-supporting, and negro labor, for which reasonable wages 
had been paid, had brought money into the United States treasury 
and into the hands of individual planters. Moreover, some of 



,8 Official Records, Ser. I, Vol. 47, Part II., pp. 60, 61. In condensing 
this order, omission has been made of any land outside of S. C. 



84 Smith College Studies in History 

the race had shown their efficiency as soldiers. A real begin- 
ning had been made in the education of the negro and it was 
evident that he was eager to attend school and could learn the 
elementary studies. 

March 3, 1865, when the first freedmen's bureau bill became 
a law. the experiment on the sea islands of South Carolina was 
extended to all the "insurrectionary states." How the work 
which we have reviewed was reorganized, enlarged, and made 
operative in all the districts of South Carolina will be the subject 
of the following chapters. 



CHAPTER II 
Legislation and Organization 

The bill for establishing in the war department a bureau of 
refugees, freedmen and abandoned lands was signed by Presi- 
dent Lincoln March 3, 1865. To this bureau was committed 
"the supervision and management of all abandoned lands, and 
the control of all subjects relating to refugees and freedmen." 
The president was authorized to appoint a commissioner to whom 
should be given the general management of the bureau, and 
also ten assistant commissioners for the states "declared to be 
in insurrection." Annual salaries were to be paid to the 
commissioner and his ten assistants, but any military officer 
might be detailed and assigned to duty without increase of pay 
or allowance. Provisions, clothing and fuel might be issued by 
direction of the secretary of war "for the immediate and tempo- 
rary shelter and supply of destitute and suffering refugees and 
freedmen." The commissioner was authorized "to set apart, for 
the use of loyal refugees and freedmen, such tracts of land within 
the insurrectionary states as shall have been abandoned, or to 
which the United States shall have acquired title by confiscation, 
or sale, or otherwise." Provision was made for the allotment of 
this land in 40-acre tracts to the negroes. The bureau was to 
continue "during the present war of rebellion, and for one year 
thereafter." 1 
-^ President Lincoln chose as commissioner of the freedmen's 
bureau Major General Oliver Otis Howard, who had served with 
distinction during the war, and was then in command of the army 
of the Tennessee. Unwilling to withdraw General Howard from 
the field where he was still needed, Lincoln delayed the appoint- 
ment, which was finally made by President Johnson on May 12, 
1865. 2 Howard at once entered upon the discharge of his duties 
and made the following four divisions of bureau work : lands, 



1 Statutes at Large, XIII., 507-509. 
"Howard, Autobiography, II., 206-209. 



86 Smith College Studies in History 

records (embracing labor, schools and quartermaster's and com- 
missary supplies), finances, and medical aid. 3 

June 13, Howard announced the appointment of Brevet Major 
General Rufus Saxton as assistant commissioner for the states of 
South Carolina, Georgia and Florida, with headquarters at Beau- 
fort. To most of the assistant commissioners only one state was 
assigned, but an extra share fell to Saxton because of "his long 
experience with the freedmen." 4 Soon after his appointment, a 
severe illness necessitated Saxton's absence for 30 days, thus 
delaying the organization of the bureau in his districts. To 
lighten his work, Howard appointed assistant commissioners over 
Georgia and Florida, so that by the last of September Saxton's 
direct supervision was over South Carolina alone. 5 His appoint- 
ment enabled him to carry on the work in which he had been 
engaged for the past three years, and gave continuity to the 
direction of negro affairs in South Carolina. 

By December, 1865, the state was divided into the following 
districts: Anderson, Beaufort, Charleston, Columbia, George- 
town, and Orangeburg. Over each was placed an officer known 
as a sub-assistant commissioner.' 1 As far as possible, the dis- 
tricts were divided into sub-districts, and the army officers de- 
tailed from duty to serve in these divisions were known as acting 
sub-assistant commissioners, which cumbersome title was usually 
shortened to "A. S. A. Commissioners." All civilians in the 
service of the bureau were known as agents. 7 A svstem was in- 
augurated by which each official of the bureau reported to his 
immediate superior. 8 Saxton was in the habit of making month- 



Ex. Docs., 39 Con-.. 1 S< ss., No. 11. p. 2. 
'Howard, Autobiography, II.. 215; Ex. Docs., 39 Cong., 1 Sess., No. 11. 
p. 47; Saxton assumed control and issued his first circular three days be- 
fore Howard's formal announcement of his appointment. Report of Joint 
Committee on Reconstruction, Part II., p. 230. 

. 39 Cong.. 1 Sess., No. 11, pp. 2. 3. 27. Howard, Autobio- 
graphy. II.. 217. 

Docs., 3') Cong., 1 Sess., No. 27, pp. 21-23; Ex. Docs., 39 
, No. 11. p. 37. 
\> . 39 Cong., 1 Sess., \*o. 70, p. 107; these terms were not 
strictly . to, and were often interchanged. 

■Sen. Docs., 39 Cong., 2 Sess., Vol. 1, No. 6. p. 116. 



The Freedmen's Bureau in South Carolina 87 

ly abstracts of outrages compiled from the reports sent him by 
his sub-assistant commissioners, 9 and by the terms of the freed- 
men's bureau bill he was required to report every three months 
jto General Howard. 10 \ The extension of the bureau to the in- 
terior was hindered in two ways. Hostility on the part of some 
of the whites made it dangerous for officers to go to the remote 
parts of the state, unless protected by military authority. Gen- 
eral Ely, the sub-assistant commissioner for Columbia, in his fre- 
quent trips to the various parts of his large district, was accom- 
panied by an armed orderly. This method was very generally 
used. 11 

, The second serious hindrance to the extension of the work 
was the difficulty of obtaining a sufficient number of bureau 
officials. The omission of Congress to make an appropriation 
for the bureau largely limited the choice of officials.^ A few 
civilians were found who freely gave their services, but the 
work was largely dependent upon army officers, who, by the 
terms of the freedmen's bureau bill, could be detailed and as- 
signed to duty without increase of salary. Because of the mus- 
tering out of the volunteers, the bureau was unable to obtain 
even from the army all the officers necessary. 12 Consequently 
the district assigned to one man was too large to receive careful 
attention to details. Of the six bureau districts, only Columbia 
and Anderson were north of the central part of the state. This 
left a larger area to be supervised by the two up-state sub-assist- 
ant commissioners than was controlled by four officials in the 
south where the country was more thoroughly guarded by the 
army. A special correspondent of The Nation wrote from 
South Carolina, November 27, 1865 : "Doubtless an officer of the 
greatest ability and activity, with the best intentions, would find 



9 
10 



Report of Joint Com. on Reconstruction, Part II., p. 218. 
Ex. Docs., 39 Cong., 1 Sess., No. 11, p. 47. Statutes at Large, XIII. , 
508. 

11 The Nation, II., 46 (Jan. 11, 1866) ; Ex. Docs, 39 Cong, 1 Sess, No. 
11, p. 3 ; Schurz, Report, 40. 

"Ex. Docs, 39 Cong, 1 Sess, No. 11, p. 3. 



88 tii College Studies in History 

it almost impossible, with the means now in his control, to pro- 
tect all the negroes in one of these wide-extending districts." 1 ' 1 

Another evil arose from the fact that officers for the bureau 
were detailed to service by the military commander, usually with- 
out consultation with the district commissioner. Under this sys- 
tem, which took from the managers of the bureau the choice of 
their assistants, it is not surprising that a large number of the 
officials were unfit for their positions. 14 Matters were made 
irse by the frequent shifting of the army, so that officials were 
sometimes in control no more than a few days before a change 
was made. Sidney Andrews wrote in September, 1865, in re- 
gard to the bureau officials in South Carolina : "The probabil- 
ities are that half the aggregate number on duty at any given 
time are wholly unfit for the work intrusted to them. 15 Of the 
official at Orangeburg, in whose office he had spent some time, he 
wrote: "His position ... is a difficult one, and he brings 
to it a head more or less muddled with liquor, a rough and coarse 
manner, a dictatorial and impatient temper, a most remarkable 
ability for cursing, and a hearty contempt for 'the whole d — n 
pack o' niggers.'" 10 Sometimes army officers were required to 
attend to the work of the bureau besides keeping up their mili- 
tary duties. This increase of labor without added compensation 
naturally tended to make them dislike the bureau. 17 

During the first year of the bureau's existence, there were in 
South Carolina four sources of authority : the customary United 
States officials, the provisional state government under the 
auspices of President Johnson, the United States military force-, 
and the freedmen's bureau. Such a condition would naturally 
lead to complications, even though the relations between the offi- 
cers of the different departments were always harmonious. But 
harmony did not exist in South Carolina. In Howard's first 

" The Nation, I., 780 (Dec. 21, 1865). 

"Andrews, The South Since the War. 23, -'4; Trowbridge, A Picture 
of the D( solated States, 338; The Nation, I.. 779 (Dec. 21, 1865). 

"Andrews, 1 I South Since the War, 24. 

" , Ibid. 

''• Kx. I).-,. ■'' Co,,-. 1 Sess., No. 11. p. 3; The Nation, I., 779 (Dec. 
21. 1865). 



The Fkkkdmkn's Bureau in South Carolina 89 

annual report, December 15, 1865, he wrote: "The department 
commander had his headquarters at Hilton Head ; General Sax- 
ton his at Beaufort, and finally at Charleston, and the provisional 
governor was in the northern part of the state. Hence there has 
been much separate and some conflicting action on the part of 
these officers, and many misunderstandings. I believe, now that 
the department commander and assistant commissioner are both 
at Charleston, and co-operating, more complete order and con- 
fidence will be the result." 18 

Through Howard's recommendation a change was effected 
whereby the assistant commissioner of South Carolina assumed 
command of the military forces of the state in June, 1866. The 
bureau districts were also made to correspond more nearly to the 
military divisions. 10 This arrangement, though an improvement 
on the former system, did not obviate all friction, but trans- 
ferred it to a different quarter. In November, 1866, the as- 
sistant commissioner for South Carolina complained that his com- 
mand of the military was only nominal, and that General 
Sickles, the department commander for both North and South 
Carolina, had reserved most of the rights to himself. 20 An order 
of General Sickles that district commanders must report to him 
en matters concerning freedmen, as well as on military affairs, 
was appealed to General Grant, who overruled it. 21 

This example of friction between the civil, military, and bu- 
reau departments is described in The Nation of July 19, 1866: 
"General Scott, assistant commissioner for South Carolina, re- 
cently prepared careful estimates of the rations needed to sustain 
the destitute of that state, and forwarded them to the proper 
authorities. General Sickles, however, his military superior, dis- 
approved of them on the ground that Governor Orr discredited 
the reports on which they were based, and the rations were ac- 
cordingly withheld. A correspondence upon the subject between 



18 Ex. Docs., 39 Cong., 1 Sess., No. 11. p. 26. 

"Howard, Autobiography, II., 284; Sen. Docs.. 39 Cong., 2 Sess., Vol. 1, 
No. 6, p. 116; Charleston Daily Courier, May 25, 1866. 
M Sen. Docs., 39 Cong., 2 Sess., Vol. 1, No. 6, p. 116. 
n The Nation, III., 43 (July 19, 1866). 



90 Smith College Studies in History 

General Howard and Governor Orr revealed a misapprehension 
on the part of General Sickles, the governor being solicitous that 
the rations should be furnished as proposed. "--' 

The trouble between those high in command simply reflected 
the feeling of their subordinates. The assistant commissioner re- 
ported : "•.Many of the officers in command of troops manifest an 
aversion to the bureau and do not seem disposed to carry out its 
provisions, and I regret to say that the freed people in many lo- 
calities fear the troops as much as they do their former master." 
Complaints of difficulties with post commanders over judicial 
affairs were sent to the assistant commissioner from all over the 
state. 23 

January 15, 1866, Saxton was succeeded as assistant com- 
missioner of South Carolina by General Robert K. Scott of 
Ohio. The reasons for the change are nowhere openly avowed. 
Saxton testified that he thought his removal due to "misrepre- 
sentation of such men as ex-Governor Aiken and William 
W'haley," to whom he had refused to surrender the land formerly 
owned by them. 24 Light is thrown on the subject by Howard in 
his "Autobiography," in which he complains that President John- 
son was "very .anxious to be rid of every prominent officer who 
was reported to have been the freedmen's friend." and that in the 
president's eyes Saxton was too much the advocate of his 
wards.-"' Generals Steedman and Fullerton, who were sent by 
President Johnson in the spring of 1866 to investigate the opera- 
tion of the freedmen's bureau, condemned the results of Sax- 
ton's administration. They reported that a too liberal issue of 
supplies on his part had fostered idleness and improvidence 
among the negroes, and they criticised in particular his policy on 
the sea islands. Too much weight, however, should not be given 



* Ibid. 

"Sen. Docs.. 39 Cong., 2 Sess., Vol. 1, No. 6, pp. 116, 119. 
14 Report of Join! Committee on Reconstruction, Part II., p. 216; Re- 
port of the Sec. of War. 39 Cong., 2 Sess., p. 736. 
' Howard, Autobiography, II., 283-284. 



The Freedmen's Bureau in South Carolina 91 

this report, which is evidently biased in favor of Scott as opposed 
to Saxton. 26 

That Saxton was beloved by his charges and that he had their 
interests at heart can not be doubted. 27 But in the turbulent 
period of reconstruction, something more was needed in the official 
who served as chief arbiter between the whites and blacks in 
South Carolina. Whitelaw Reid described him in 1865 as "nar- 
row, but intense, not very profound in seeing the right, but ener- 
getic in doing it when seen ; given to practice rather than theory ; 
and withal, good and true." 28 Such a man might unwittingly 
hinder rather than help the cause he advocated. Scott, who suc- 
ceeded Saxton, was by no means his equal in culture or character, 
but in many particulars he made a more efficient assistant com- 
missioner. He was more conciliatory toward the white people 
of the state and less ardent in his advocacy of negro rights. 29 

July 16, 1866, the powers of the freedmen's bureau were 
enlarged by the passage, over President Johnson's veto, of the 
third freedmen's bureau bill. 30 Provision was made for the fol- 
lowing changes. The bureau was to continue in existence for 
two years after the passage of the act. The commissioner was 
authorized to appoint such agents, clerks and assistants as wer.e 
necessary, detailed from the army without increase of pay, or 
chosen from the ranks of civilians. In the latter case they should 
receive an annual salary of from $500 to $1,200. The bureau 



"Charleston Daily Courier, June 16, 1866. 
"The Nation, II, 754 (June 15, 1866). 

I am endebted to Dr. Samuel A. Green for the information that 
General Saxton's name was softened by the negroes to Saxaby. White- 
law Reid preserves the following spirituel, in which the negroes showed 
their esteem of General Saxton by associating him with their idea of 
heaven. •«Q en _ e _ u i Sa— a— axby a sittin' on de tree ob life, 
Roll, Jordan, roll, 

Gen— e— ul Sa— a— axby a sittin' on the tree ob life, 
Ro — o — oil, Jordan, roll, 
Ro — o — oil, Jordan, roll, 
Ro — o — oil, Jordan, ro — o — oil !" 
„ „ . , nn —Reid, After the War, 105. 

■* Ibid., 80. 

251 For an example of Saxton's extreme ideas see Chapter III, p. 95. 
30 The second freedmen's bureau bill had failed to pass over the presi- 
dent's veto, Feb. 19, 1866. 



92 Smith College Studies in History 

was given military jurisdiction and protection over the civil rights 
of the citizens until the ordinary judicial proceedings and rela- 
tions to the government should he restored. Special provision 
was made for the disposal of land in South Carolina, which will 
be discussed in chapter three. 31 This law increased the power 
of the bureau, and enabled it to extend its sway to the remote 
parts of the state. In November, 1866. it was reported that the 
bureau was in communication with any who might require the 
assistance of its officers. :; - 

July 6, 1868, congress passed a bill authorizing the continu- 
ance of the bureau for another year, except in states fully restored 
to their relations with the national government. Even in such 
states the educational department of the bureau should be con- 
tinued until suitable state provision should be made for the edu- 
cation of the freedmen. :::; In the same month, representatives 
and senators from South Carolina were admitted to congress, and 
Scott resigned his position as assistant commissioner to become 
governor of the state. 34 His successor, Colonel J. R. Edie, was 
assigned to duty by the war department July 31, 1868. 35 Although 
by the act of July 6, 1868, the bureau should have been with- 
drawn from South Carolina after the admission of its representa- 
tives to congress, another act. passed July 25. provided for its 
discontinuance in the several states after January 1. 1869, except 
for the educational department and the collection and payment 
of bounty. 36 Acccordingly, Edie and his subordinates continued 
to serve until December 31, 1868, when only comparatively few 
officers and agents were retained/ 17 In 1870, the bureau gave 
up its educational work for lack of funds, 38 and by act of con- 
gress, June 10, 1S72. provision was made for its entire abolition 
after June 30 of the same year. 39 

"Statutes at Urge, XIV.. 174-177. 
- Report of the Sec. of War. 39 Cong., 2 Sess., p. 736. 

Statutes at Large, XV.. 82-83. 
'Reynolds, Reconstruction in South Carolina. 97. 
1 Howard, Report, Oct. 14. lNoS. ,». 26. 

Statutes at Large, XV., 193-194. 
' Howard, Report, Oct. 20, 1869, p. 3. 

Howard, Report, Oct. 20. 1870, p. 7. 

Statutes at Large, XVII., 366. 



CHAPTER III 
Distribution and Restoration of Land 

It will be remembered that in the first year of the war the 
owners of plantations on and near the sea islands of South Caro- 
lina fled at the approach of the Union Army. 1 The land thus 
abandoned was appropriated by the national government by acts 
of congress authorizing, first, the seizure and sale of lands on 
which the direct tax had not been paid ; 2 second, the seizure of 
property of all persons engaged in aiding "the rebellion," 3 and 
finally the collection and sale by the treasury agents of abandoned 
property in the insurrectionary districts. 4 Property was to be 
regarded as abandoned when the lawful owners should be "vol- 
untarily absent therefrom, and engaged, either in arms or other- 
wise, in aiding or encouraging the rebellion." 5 

By March 3, 1865, when the first freedmen's bureau bill 
went into effect, the land seized by the government was disposed 
of as follows: first, land sold or leased to Northerners and ne- 
groes by the United States tax commissioners ; second, land held 
by the negroes in forty-acre tracts for which they had possessory 
titles granted in accordance with Sherman's special field order ; 
third, land occupied without authority by the negroes; fourth, 
land set aside by the tax commissioners as "school farms," and 
fifth, unoccupied land. 

The first freedmen's bureau bill provided for the assignment 
to freedmen and refugees of 40-acre tracts of abandoned and 
confiscated land, with provision for the payment by them of an 
annual rent of six per cent of its value. The privilege of pur- 
chase was extended, with the promise that the government would 
provide "such title as the United States can convey." 6 President 
Johnson ordered the federal officers to turn over to the freed- 

1 See p. 1 above. 

'Statutes at Large, XII, pp. 292-313; 422-426; 640-641. 

3 Ibid., XII., pp. 589-592. 

*Ibid., XII., pp. 820-821 ; XIII., pp. 375-578. 

'Ibid., XIII., 376. 

'Ibid., XIII., 508. 



94 Smith College Studies in History 

men's bureau all abandoned lands and property. 7 For South 
Carolina and Georgia, Saxton received 435,000 acres of land 
(more than half the entire amount of land held by the bureau 
in the sixteen states in which it operated), and 782 pieces of 
town property. s 

The system of leases made by the treasury department was 
maintained. At first $6,000 a month was received by the bureau 
for rent, much of which was for town property in the city of 
Charleston. Because of restoration to former owners, the revenue 
so derived was reduced by November 1, 1866, to $50 a month." 
Much of the land in the hands of the bureau was allotted to the 
freedmen, but from the beginning Howard publicly recognized 
that the bureau could not "convey a full and perfect title in fee 
simple." 10 

Early in 1865 the rumor spread from plantation to plantation 
throughout the state that the government was giving to every 
negro "40 acres and a mule." 11 The origin of the belief in gifts 
of 40 acres can readily be traced to Sherman's special field order 
and the terms of the first freedmen's bureau bill, but the added 
generosity of the government in the bestowal of mules can not 
so easily be accounted for. Possibly it was due to the negroes' 
belief that 40 acres without his favorite and much abused beast 
of burden would be worthless. Although the more conservative 
of the race determined to remain at home, reflecting that in the 
division, the "home-house" might fall to them, 1 - the report that 
land was already being given away on the coast caused a constant 
stream of migration in that direction. Sidney Andrews, in a 
night journey from Orangeburg to Columbia in September, 
1865, "met scores of them trudging along with their whole earth- 
ly possessions in a bundle on the head." To quote from him: 
"Walking in the bright moonlight, seventy or eighty rods ahead 



: Ex. Docs., 39 Cong., 1 Sess., No. 11, p. 41. 

s Ibid., p. 6. 

" Ibid., p. 4; Son. Docs., 39 Cong., 2 Sess., Vol. 1. No. 6. p. 112. 

.. Docs.. 39 Cong., 1 Sess.. No. 11. p. 4. 
"Schurz, Report, 31. Andrews. The South Since the War, 97, 98; 
The Nation, [., 651 (Nov, 23, 1865). 

'-' Vndrews, The South Since the War. 97, 98. 



The Freedmen's Bureau in South Carolina 95 

of the hack, I spoke with many. They had but few words ; 'Go- 
ing to Char'ston,' was often their only reply. Whether talkative 
or taciturn, there was a firm foot and unruffled voice for the 
coast." 13 

The freedmen's desire for land became in some instances 
an insistent demand. "What's the use to give us our freedom 
if we can't stay where we were raised, and own our houses where 
we were born, and our little pieces of ground?" was asked. 14 The 
South Carolina Leader for March 31, 1866, prints over the name 
of a negro soldier the following: "They [the planters] have 
no reason to say that we will not work, for we raised them, and 
sent them to school, and bought their land, and now it is as little 
as they can do to give us some of their land — be it little or 
much." 15 Such expressions, thought doubtless rare, 10 served to 
infuriate the southern whites. 

The freedmen's bureau was accused by many, among whom 
was General Grant, of originating and spreading the idea that the 
land was to be divided among the freedmen. 17 In 1864 Saxton 
had expressed the opinion that "it seems to be the dictate of 
simple justice that they [the negroes] have the highest right to 
a soil they have cultivated so long by the crudest compulsion." 18 
Doubtless this feeling was shared by some of his subordinates 
and communicated itself in some measure to the negroes. How- 
ever, in the fall of 1865, seeing the disastrous effects upon labor 
caused by the expectation that land would be given away at New 
Year's, Saxton issued a circular charging his officers and agents 
to do all in their power to convince the negroes that their belief 
was groundless. 19 One of the early problems of the bureau in 
South Carolina was to provide for the swarms of blacks then in- 
vading the coast region. Some were sent back to the interior at the 



13 Ibid., 98. 

M The Nation, I.. 393 (Sept. 28, 1865). 

15 South Carolina Leader, March 31, 1866. 

"Schurz, Report, 30. 

" Ibid., 107. 

,s Official Records, Ser. III., Vol. IV., Serial 125, p. 1025. 

19 Ex. Docs., 39 Cong., 1 Sess., No. 70, p. 95. 






96 !Tii College Studies in History 

government's expense, while others were settled upon lands by 
General Saxton. He estimated that 40.000 negroes had been 
provided with homes according to the provisions of Sherman's 
special field order.-" In addition, over 600 certificates of title to 
real estate were given to negroes by the tax commissioners of 
South Carolina.- 1 Xegro land-holders frequently hired less for- 
tunate members of their race as laborers, 22 and the Charleston 
Daily Courier reports that they were exacting task masters. 23 

In Sherman's special field order it was stipulated that no white 
man, except military officers and soldiers detailed for duty, should 
be allowed on the lands set apart for the negro. Saxton's circular 
number 4, issued April 22, 1865, named the penalities for viola- 
tion of this provision. 24 Edisto, Wardmelaw, James, and John's 
Islands were completely given over to the negroes, 25 and the 
planters, returning from the war, found it necessary to obtain 
permission and even protection to visit their old homes. Those 
who went, reported that "most of the elegant mansions . . . were 
cut and hacked by hatchets and axes, the doors and windows 
broken out, the fruit trees cut down, and everything wearing the 
most desolating aspect.'*-'' In one instance the family tomb had 
been used as a dog kennel. 27 As late as January, 1866, four 
men, who had come from Philadelphia with a view of purchasing 
land in the south, considered themselves fortunate to escape 
with their lives from a visit to John's Island. They were sur- 
rounded by a constantly increasing crowd of angry negroes, the 
men carrying firearms, the women brandishing hoes, pitchforks 
and clubs, and made to march 12 miles across the island to the 
quarters of the commissary department where they were rescued. 



20 Report of Joint Committee on Reconstruction, Part II., p. 221. 
Jl Ibid., p. 259. 
id. 
iliarleston Dailx Courier, June 6, 1866. 
"Tremain, Two Days of War. etc., pp. 255. 256; Charleston Daily 
Courier, Oct. 10, 1865. 

*The Nation, I., 172 (Aug. 10, 1865). Charleston Daily Courier, Feb. 
15, 1866. 

Ibid., Feb. 6, 1866. 
" From private letter in possession of the writer. 



The Freedmen's Bureau in South Carolina 97 

The Philadelphia gentlemen returned as soon as possible to the 
City of Brotherly Love. 28 

May 29, 1865, President Johnson issued a proclamation of 
amnesty and pardon, with restoration of rights of property, to 
all persons who should take an oath to support the Union and 
abide by its laws. Exceptions were made including the Southern 
leaders and persons worth over $20,000. I Two kinds of property 
were withheld from restoration, vis., slaves and property for 
which legal proceedings had been instituted in view of confisca- 
tion by the United States government. Provision was made for 
private pardon, in which case clemency was promised. 29 

A difference of opinion early arose between Howard and the 
president. The former ordered his assistant commissioners to 
restore property only to those who could show constant loyalty, 
and provided for the protection of refugees and freedmen then 
occupying land set apart for them. 30 This displeased the presi- 
dent, who had circular number 15 prepared under his own direc- 
tion and ordered Howard to issue it. The circular provided for 
the restoration of abandoned lands to all who could furnish proof 
of title 31 and pardon and provide full and just compensation to 
the freedmen for their labor and expenditures. 32 The order was 
supplemented November 30 by circular number 20, stipulating 
that no lands should be restored until complete and careful pro- 
vision should be made for the resident refugees and freedmen. 33 
This left the negro secure only in the possession of confiscated 
land, which was defined as land which had "been condemned and 



-"Charleston Daily Courier, Feb. 1, 11, and March 12, 1866. 

" Official Records, Ser. II., Vol. 8, Serial 121, pp. 578-580. 

30 Howard, Autobiography II., 234, 235; Ex. Docs., 39 Cong., 1 Sess., 

No. 11, p. 5. 

1 Where the records and deeds had been destroyed, Howard accepted 
as proof of ownership the affidavits of two or three citizens. Charleston 
Daily Courier, Nov. 22, 1865. 

32 Ex. Docs., 39 Cong., 1 Sess., No. 11, p. 56. 

33 Report of the Sec. of War. 39 Cong., 2 Sess., p. 754. The use of the 
word "refugee" in this case seems to be a mere formality, for although 
the records show that a large amount of provisions was given to refugees 
(meaning white people), no indication can be found that land was allotted 
to them. 



98 Smith College Studies in History 

sold by decree of the United States court for the district in which 
the property may be found, and the title thereto vested in the 
United States." 34 In case the former owner had not been par- 
doned, it put upon the bureau the burden of proving that the land 
had been abandoned. 35 

Delay in the restoration of lands finally caused the former 
owners to appeal to President Johnson, promising at the same 
time that they would "absorb the labor and care for the freed- 
men." This resulted in general order number 145 from the 
president, ordering Howard to South Carolina, Georgia, and 
Florida. He was "to effect an arrangement mutually satisfactory 
to the freedmen and the land-owners," and was empowered to 
issue orders necessary to execute such a plan. 36 Although How- 
ard felt that any dispossession of the negroes was a betrayal of 
faith on the part of the government, he restrained an impulse to 
resign his position, and obeyed the president's command, hoping 
thereby to be able to befriend the freed people. 37 He reached 
Charleston October 17, 1865. Soon afterwards, accompanied by 
William YYhaley, the legal representative of the planters, he held 
a conference with over 2,000 negroes in a church on Edisto 
Island. Rumor having reached the negroes that land was to 
be taken from them, they were filled with sorrow and excitement. 
"In the noise and confusion no progress was to be had," says 
Howard, in his Autobiography, "till a sweet-voiced negro wo- 
man began the hymn, 'Nobody knows the trouble I feel — Nobody 
knows but Jesus,' which, joined in by all. had a quieting effect 
upon the audience." Howard then explained to them the wishes 
of the president, and urged them to make the best terms they 
could with the planters. 

A committee of three was appointed from among the negroes 
which heard from Howard the offers of the planters. They ab- 
solutely refused to work under overseers, and asked that land 



' Ex. Decs., 39 Cong., 1 Sess., No. 11. p. 56. 
' Howard, Autobiography, II.. 235, 236. 
Ex. Docs., 39 Con.';.. 1 Sess., No. 11, pp. 6. 7. Tremain, Two Days 
of War, etc., 248, 257, 258. 

■ Howard, Autobiography, II.. 237-238. 



The; Freedmen's Bureau in South Carolina 99 

might be rented or sold to them. Finally, by unanimous consent, 
the assembly voted to leave the whole matter with Howard, in 
whom they had implicit confidence. 38 On October 19, Howard 
issued from Charleston special field order number 1, authorizing 
the agent of the bureau on Edisto Island to form a board of 
supervisors to aid in making contracts. This board was to con- 
sist of the agent "and two other citizens," one to be selected by 
the land owners, the other by the freedmen. An obligation which 
was to be signed by the planters before the land should be re- 
stored, bound them to secure to the freedmen the crops of the 
present year and to "take proper steps to enter into contracts" 
with them. In case the freedmen refused to contract within two 
months, they thereby surrendered the right to remain on the 
estates. -Captain Alexander P. Ketchum was appointed to take 
charge of the restoration and to extend Howard's special field 
order number 1 to other estates affected by Sherman's famous 
order. 31 ' 

No sooner had Howard left before difficulties arose. The 
negroes appointed as their representative on the board a mem- 
ber of their own race. The planters objected on the ground that 
Howard's order specified that the representatives were to be 
"citizens." The privilege of citizenship had not yet been con- 
ferred upon the negro, and the planters gained their point, ob- 
taining from Howard a statement that only whites were intended 
by him to constitute the board. 40 

A more serious difficulty occurred because the negroes flatly 
refused to contract upon any terms, and asked to have the lands 
leased or sold to them. The idea that they were to be land 
owners had by this time became a passion with them. Some 
expressed their willingness to contract if the owners would sell 
them even one acre. Others affirmed that they would be satisfied 
with nothing short of the entire possession of Edisto Island. 



38 Ibid., 238-240; Ex. Docs., 39 Cong., 1 Sess., No. 11. p. 7; Andrews, 
The South Since the War, 212, 213. 

29 Ex. Docs., 39 Cong., 1 Sess., No. 11, pp. 7. 8. 

40 Tremain, Two Days of War, etc., 249-250; Daily South Carolinian. 
Jan. 17, 1866. 



100 Smith College Studies in History 

The planters at first refused to consider any proposition for 
lease or sale, and the officers of the freedmen's bureau would 
not restore the lands until "satisfactory arrangements" had been 
made with the freedmen. Thus by refusing to contract, the 
negroes were succeeding in retaining their land." 

The planters did not ask for a restoration of property which 
had been confiscated by court proceedings, but for the land of 
which they had been deprived without due process of law. The 
following is quoted from the Charleston Daily Courier, October 
10, 1865 : "Upon the theory that the state was never out of the 
Union, after the cessation of hostilities the citizen can only be 
deprived of his estate or life by proceedings for the condemnation 
of the one, or by conviction before a jury as to the other. There 
must be judicial proceedings, and one must be presumed to be 
innocent till his guilt be made to appear by proof. To maintain 
possession of the land seems to be anticipating trial, conviction 
and sentence." 

The deadlock between the planters and the freedmen resulted 
not only in an increasing ill-feeling between the two classes, but 
also in an economic loss to the country. When the planting sea- 
son of 1866 arrived, the whites were unable to regain their lands 
and the negroes, who were in possession, hesitated to cultivate 
land which they feared to lose at any moment. 42 The question 
was now considered a subject for national legislation. January 5, 
1866, a freedmen's bureau bill was introduced into the senate 
which would make valid the possessory titles granted in pursu- 
ance of Sherman's special field order. 43 Although the bill failed 
to pass over the president'.- veto, it stimulated the hope that 
definite legislative action would soon settle the difficulty. 

As a temporary expedient, Howard wrote a letter to the as- 

tant commissioner for South Carolina, March 8, 1866, order- 
ing him to restore estates which had not been regularly allotted 
to the negroes. 41 This dispossessed many negroes of land on 

41 Tremain, Two Days of War, etc., 245-277. 

"Report of Join: Committee on Reconstruction, Part II., p. 237. 

"Cong. Globe, 39 Cong., 1 Sess., Pari I. p. 129. 

** Report of the Sec of War, 39 Cong., 2 Sess., p. 736. 



The Freedmen's Bureau in South Carolina 101 

which they had made unauthorized settlements. An investiga- 
tion showed that only a few who had received possessory titles 
had occupied the land assigned to them. With the irresponsibil- 
ity and ignorance of children, they had settled wherever they 
chose, sometimes on a different island from the one for a portion 
of which they held a possessory title. 45 In executing Howard's 
order, Assistant Commissioner Scott provided that the negroes 
who had occupied their claims should in certain cases be trans- 
ferred, so that the land in their possession should be contiguous. 
The remaining land was to be restored, with the provision that the 
negroes not holding grants could remain where they had been 
located until the planters had offered them opportunities of labor 
upon terms satisfactory to the freedmen's bureau. 40 

At this point the military authorities of the department of 
South Carolina interfered and ordered all freedmen who refused 
to contract to remove from the plantations within ten days after 
such refusal. Army officers were declared judges of the fair- 
ness of the contracts, and detachments of troops enforced the 
order. Scott, in reporting the incident, affirmed that "the officers 
of these detachments in many instances took from the freedmen 
their certificates, declared them worthless, and destroyed them 
in their presence. Upon refusing to accept the contracts offered, 
the people in several instances were thrust out into the highways, 
where, being without shelter, many perished from small-pox." 
The freedmen's bureau, feeling that its power had been usurped 
by the army, remonstrated. After considerable trouble, an un- 
derstanding was reached between the two authorities whereby 
the bureau's rights were recognized. 47 Regardless of the trouble 
between the military authority and the freedmen's bureau, much 
good was accomplished by Scott's order. In June, 1866, it was 
reported by one of the planters that the number of negroes hold- 
ing possessory titles was few in comparison with those working 
under contract. 48 



45 Sen. Docs., 39 Cong., 2 Sess.. Vol. 1. No. 6, p. 114. 

48 General Orders No. 9. Charleston Daily Courier, March 10, 1866. 

"Sen. Docs., 39 Cong., 2 Sess., Vol. 1. No. 6, pp. 114. 115. 

48 Charleston Daily Courier, June 6, 1866. 



102 Smith College Studies in History 

July 16, 1866, congress enacted over the president's veto the 
following provisions in regard to the land held by the freedmen's 
bureau in South Carolina. The two years granted by congress 
for redemption of lands forfeited for non-payment of direct 
taxes having passed, the sales made by the tax commissioners to 
heads of families of the African race were "confirmed and estab- 
lished." School farms and certain city lots were to be sold and 
the proceeds applied to the support of education. To each per- 
son holding a valid possessory title, granted in accordance with 
Sherman's special field order, was to be given a six years' lease 
of twenty acres. These allotments should be made by the tax 
commissioners from the land held by them in the parishes of 
Saint Luke and Saint Helena. The land so leased could be 
purchased by the holders at the end of six years for SI. 50 
an acre. Thus the freedmen were to surrender the plantations 
for which the owners were clamoring, and receive in exchange a 
lease for half the number of acres. Restoration of land was to 
be made after the season's crops had been gathered and the 
negroes compensated by the planters for any improvements 
made on the property. 49 

In November, 1866, Assistant Commissioner Scott reported 
that the lands to which the negroes were to be transferred were 
being surveyed by the tax commissioner, preparatory to a restora- 
tion about the first of January, 1867."'" The accompanying table 
gives the official record of property in possession of the bureau 
and restored by it. A study of the table will show that the figures 
do not balance, neither do they correspond to the report of Scott, 
dated November 1, 1866, in which he stated that 748 houses and 
kits and 312.888 acres in South Carolina were in possession of 
the bureau on January 20. 1866. r>1 Because of this discrepancy 
it is impossible to make an accurate estimate of the amount of 
property restored, or of the time when the restoration took place. 
It will be noticed that by ( )ctober, 1869, it had been ordered that 



4B Statute at Large, XI V.. 173-177. 
' S< n. I »ocs., 39 Cong., 2 Sess., Vol. 1. No. 6. p. 125. 

■'Ibid., p. 11-'. 



The Freedmen's Bureau in South Carolina 



103 



all abandoned lands should be restored or dropped from the re- 
turns. 



Date of Report 


Amount of Property 
in Possession 


Amt. of Property Returned 

(In each case since the preceding report) 




Acres of 
Land 


Pieces of 

Town 
Property 


Acres of Land 


Pieces of 

Town 
Property 


Dec, 1865* 

Nov. 1, 1866 

Nov. 1, 1867 
Oct. 24, 1868t 


435,000 
96,693 

85,694 
74,669 


398 

20 

17 
15 


15278, plus certain 
tracts, the acreage 
whereof was not 
reported. 

13,351 

11,025 


384 
626 

10 
2 



* The report for 1865 was for both Georgia and South Carolina, but 
other reports show that the bureau held nearly three times as much land 
in South Carolina as in Georgia. 

t The Report of Oct., 1869, stated that it was ordered during the pre- 
ceding year that all abandoned lands should be restored or dropped from 
the returns. 

This chapter well illustrates how easily errors can be made 
in a time of strain and excitement which can as easily be criti- 
cised in the light of another generation. The story of the govern- 
ment's mismanagement of the problem of the abandoned lands in 
South Carolina is a sad one, both from the standpoint of the 
freedmen (whom the government was vainly trying to help), 
and of the real owners of the property. Three times were the 
negroes promised land, only to have it taken from them when 
they felt most secure in its possession. The inevitable result 
upon the negro was a restlessness and distrust of all white men 
which redoubled the already heavy burdens of the bureau. 

From the standpoint of the dispossessed planters, the attitude 
of the national government was most inconsistent. They were 
perforce citizens of the United States, yet they were denied the 
rights of property guaranteed by the constitution to citizens. 
Their plantations, houses, even their family tombs, were turned 
over to the pillage and desecration of an inferior race. Mean- 
while, discouraged and penniless, they returned from the war 



104 Smith College Studies in History 

and were forbidden to resume the cultivation of their plantations 
by which they could have gained a livelihood. Aside from the 
injustice done the negroes and the planters, the economic waste 
was a loss to the whole country. Fertile plantations lay idle or 
were poorly cultivated, 52 and ill feeling was engendered which 
retarded agricultural operations in the state, and left a permanent 
mark on southern life. 



Charleston Z?«i7v Courier, Feb. 6, 1866. 



CHAPTER IV 
Labor, Justice and Marriage Relations 

The summer of 1865 was a time of uncertainty and confusion 
for both races. The negroes were awaking to the fact that free- 
dom brought with it responsibilities and deprivations they were 
ill-fitted to meet. Heretofore shelter, food, clothing and medical 
care had been provided for them. Now they were freed, not only 
from slavery, but also from the protection and care of their 
masters. With nothing to call their own but the clothes they 
wore and a few trinkets collected in slavery, they were in reality 
as dependent upon the whites as before the war. 

The condition of the planters was no less trying. Defeated 
and impoverished, they returned from the war to devise some 
means of providing for themselves and their families. In many 
instances their homes had been demolished and their former 
slaves had followed in the wake of Sherman's army. In the 
coast regions their land had been seized by the government. In 
the interior, the fields were still theirs, but useless unless by some 
means planters and laborers could adapt themselves to a new 
and to them an untried system of labor. 

Hindrances to an easy readjustment of laboring conditions 
were numerous. In the first place, a majority of the planters 
were thoroughly convinced that negroes would not work without 
compulsion, 1 and that in consequence free labor in the South was 
doomed to failure. But even though the negroes would work, the 
South Carolinians had no money with which to pay them, and the 
freedmen would not trust to promises of a fair division of the 
harvest. They showed a great aversion to signing any kind of 
written contract drawn up by the planters, fearing that by so 
doing they might sign away their freedom.- In the up-country, 
where farms were smaller and there had been more of a personal 
touch between master and slaves, the negroes were more in- 

"Schurz, Report, 16. Andrews. The South Since the War, 25. 97. 101. 
2 Schurz, Report, 30. 



106 Smith College Studies in History 

clined to remain in their old homes and "work along" until some 
definite arrangement might be made. Those from the large 
plantations were restless and eager to try their freedom by idle- 
ness and vagrancy. 3 In some instances the negroes were unin- 
formed of their emancipation, and kept in apparent slavery. 4 

The situation between employer and employee was one which 
could be met only by the intervention of a third party. Early in 
1865 the Union army in South Carolina undertook to act as medi- 
ator. Its officers were empowered to make written contracts for 
the contending parties and to collect a fee of 50 cents for each 
signer. 5 It was found that the negroes' aversion to signing pa- 
pers disappeared when they felt that their rights would be pro- 
tected by the army. Unfortunately, this confidence was in many 
instances betrayed, and contracts were approved by officers of the 
army which were most unjust to the freedmen. It was evident 
that the officers' interest was largely centered in the number of 
fees which they could procure. 6 In some of the contracts, clauses 
were inserted which bound the freedmen to work off any in- 
debtedness which they might thereafter incur. General Hatch, 
commanding at Charleston, noted this tendency toward peonage 
and forbade any such arrangements. 7 The ignorance of the freed- 
men was sometimes taken advantage of by purposely obscuring 
the meaning of the contract. An instance is recorded where the 
laborers were promised "one-third of seven-twelfths" of the 
crop. 8 As a rule, a share of the crops, rather than wages, was 
promised. The share varied from one-tenth to one-half, from 
which was to be deducted the expenses of the freedmen while the 
crop was being made. In some districts one-half of the crop was 
the universal rate. 



"Ibid., 29; The Nation. I., 107 (July 27, 1865). 

* Report of Joint Committee on Reconstruction, Part II., p. 222; 
Schurz, Report, 18. 

'Ex. Docs., 39 Cong., 1 Sess., No. 11, p. 26; Sen. Docs., 39 Cong., 2 
. Vol. 1. No. 6. p. 113. 

'Ibid; Schurz. Report, 30. 

'Reid, Vfter the War. S4 ; Schurz, Report, 22. 

■ Reporl of fainl Committee on Reconstruction, Fart 11.. p. 259. 

'Ibid; The Nation, [., 238 (Aug. 24, 1865) ; Andrews, The South Since 
the War, 99. 



The Freedmen's Bureau in South Carolina 107 

When the freedmen's bureau became organized in South 
Carolina, the supervision of negro labor naturally fell upon its 
officers. In Saxton's first circular to the freed people he urged 
them to prove their right to freedom by showing a will to work. 
"Freedmen, let not a day pass ere you find some work for your 
hands to do, and do it with all your might. Plough and plant, 
dig and hoe, cut and gather in the harvest. Let it be seen that 
where in slavery there was raised a blade of corn or a pound of 
cotton, in freedom there will be two." 1 " 

To facilitate the making of contracts, Saxton established in 
each district a board consisting of the sub-assistant commissioner 
and two residents of the district, one chosen by each contracting 
party. 11 Where no agent was within reach, the nearest post- 
master was authorized to forward the duplicates of contracts to 
the assistant commissioner. 12 Saxton sent to his agents a form 
of contract to be used, which bound the planter to provide quar- 
ters, fuel, substantial and healthy rations, and all necessary 
medical attendance and supplies in case of sickness. The rate 
of wages or share in the harvest was left in each case to be de- 
termined by the agent. Contracts were to be made in duplicate, 
a copy given to each party, and a record of the transaction kept 
in the books of the bureau. 1 " Agents were forbidden to collect 
fees for witnessing contracts. 14 Bureau officials were also in- 
trusted with the guardianship of freed orphans, and were au- 
thorized to apprentice them in conformity with the state law 
regulating the apprenticeship of free white children. 15 

In the fall of 1865 many complaints were made to the bureau 
that contracts had been broken. The negroes reported cases of 
cruelty on the part of the whites, many of which on examination 
proved to be groundless. But it is undoubtedly true that much 



1,1 Report of the Joint Committee on Reconstruction, II., 230. 
" Ex. Docs., 39 Cong., 1 Sess., Vol. 8, No. 70, p. 95. 

12 Ibid.. 105. 

13 Ex. Docs., 39 Cong., 1 Sess., Vol. 8, No. 70, pp. 89, 90. 

"Sen. Docs., 39 Cong., 2 Sess., Vol. 1, No. 6, p. 113; This was done 
after Scott had assumed control of bureau affairs in S. C. Sen. Docs., 
39 Cong., 2 Sess., Vol. 1, No. 6, p. 113. 

13 Ex. Docs., 39 Cong., 1 Sess., Vol. 8, No. 70, p. 94. 



108 Smith College Studies in History 

oppression and violence existed, especially in the interior portions 
of the state, which were unguarded by the army. Saxton found 
it necessary to threaten the confiscation of lands of those who 
failed to inform the negroes of their freedom. 10 Sidney Andrews 
wrote in October, 1865, that he had heard two of the native 
South Carolinians admit that "many negroes had been beaten to 
death during the summer" in Edgefield district. 17 Officers of the 
bureau sent to Saxton numerous instances of cruelty. The fol- 
lowing are typical examples of such reports : 

"One man in Anderson district was shot and killed in presence of his 
wife, who begged for his life. Two other men were tied up. cruelly 
flogged, then shot, (and it is believed killed, as the men have disappeared,) 
while the wife of one of the men received 50 lashes. On one plantation 
in Barnwell district three colored women were severely whipped, and on 
another a woman was unmercifully flogged because she refused to leave 
the place. Four white citizens, with a white soldier, broke into the house 
of a freedman, who was sick, tied his hands behind him, and swung him 
up to a post for an hour or more, then chained him and left him so for 
more than two days. On some of the plantations the freedmen do not 
get a share of all of the produce, the planters withholding the cotton crop 
on some plea best known to themselves. This latter practice is almost 
universal throughout the state."" 

In many instances negroes in the fall were sent to the coast, 
sometimes on the promise that their employers would meet them 
there and pay them for their year's labor. The failure of the 
planters to appear left the deluded negroes to gain their living 
in a strange place as best they might, which was usually either 
by stealing or by becoming dependent upon the supplies of the 
freedmen's bureau. 19 These statements were probably largely 
based on the negroes themselves. 

Carl Schurz, after an investigation of southern conditions in 
the summer of 1865, reported that contracts were more frequent- 
ly broken by the blacks than by the whites, and that "very many 
plantations under extensive cultivation were entirely abandoned" 



"Schurz, Report, 18; Reynolds. Reconstruction in S. C, 4. 

17 Andrews, The South Since the War, 220. 

u Report of Joint Committee on Reconstruction, Part II.. pp. 222, 229; 
The Nation, 1., 780 (Dec. 21, 1865). 

" Ibid; Report of Joint Committee on Reconstruction, Part II., pp. 224, 
226; Andrews. The South Since the War, 207. 



The Freedmen's Bureau i\ South Carolina 

by the laborers. Disastrous as this was to the planters, it is 
natural that the negroes were not seriously impressed with the 
obligation of the written word. The freedmen's bureau returned 
many such negroes to the plantations. 20 

The question naturally arises as to the power which could 
enforce contracts drawn up by bureau officials. At first Saxton 
instructed his officers to allow the civil magistrates to administer 
justice, provided they acted as agents of the bureau, received 
negro testimony and applied to cases involving negroes the state 
laws intended for the whites. In the event of a refusal on the 
part of the magistrates to comply with these terms, the officers of 
the freedmen's bureau were to become the sole arbiters in all 
cases in which a negro was a party.- 1 In June, 1865, provost 
courts, consisting of an officer of the army and two citizens, were 
established by an order from the commander of the department 
of the South. These courts were to adjudicate all cases in which 
a freedman was either plaintiff or defendant. Sentences admin- 
istered by them were not to exceed $100 and imprisonment for 
two months. 22 Thus it will be seen that there were three con- 
flicting tribunals in South Carolina; civil, bureau, and provost 

courts. 

An understanding between the provisional governor and the 
army was reached whereby the civil authorities surrendered all 
cases involving freedmen to the provost courts. 2:! When the 
offices of assistant commissioner and state commander \\ 
merged in June, 1866, Assistant Commissioner Scott gained con- 
trol of provost courts and was enabled to supervise jurisdiction 
over the negro. 24 Bureau officers adjudicated and enforced judg- 
ments in trivial cases, and referred more seriou> matters to the 
nearest provost courts.'-" Howard limited the sentences 
nounced by his officials to a fine of $100 and imprisonment 



20 Schurz, Report, 30, 49. 

21 Ex. Docs., 39 Cong., 1 Sess., No. 70, p. 90. 

22 Sen. Docs., 39 Cong., 2 Sess., No. 6, p. 117. 

23 Annual Cyclopaedia, 1865. p. 7-S: Ex. Docs., 39 ". 
p. 23. 

24 Sen. Docs.. 39 Cong.. 2 Sc>s.. Vol. 1. No. 6. p. 116. 
"Report of the Sec. of War. -to Conj - ;>• 1040. 



110 Smith College Studies in History 

days. 21 ' It was reported from South Carolina that the freedmen 
preferred the bureau courts to those of the army ; and that they 
sometimes came on foot from 100 to 150 miles to obtain justice 
from the bureau, rather than intrust their cases to the military 
officers stationed near them. 27 

To the leaders of congress the continued military supervision 
of the southern states seemed necessary. Reports reached them 
that the negroes were being cruelly oppressed by the native whites 
and that some of the latter had openly avowed that "the un- 
constitutional emancipation proclamation" would be set aside as 
soon as southern representatives were readmitted to congress. 28 
The North felt that its worst fears were justified when in Decem- 
ber, 1865, the South Carolina legislature enacted a code of laws 
for the government of the negro. These laws, known as the 
black code, although giving to negroes the right to acquire, own 
and dispose of property, undertook to prescribe most minutely 
the relations between master and servants. Negroes were not 
to be absent from the premises nor to receive visitors without the 
master's consent. On the farms, they were to "rise at the dawn 
in the morning, feed, water and care for the animals on the farm, 
do the usual and needful work about the premises, prepare their 
meals for the day, if required by the master, and begin the farm 
or other work by sunrise." 29 The black code was interpreted by 
the North as an attempt to re-enslave the negro, and was prompt- 
ly nullified by order of General Sickles. 80 Congress was now 
thoroughly convinced that military protection of the negro must 
be maintained. The system of military courts' 11 wrought great in- 
justice both to whites and blacks. On the one hand reports were 
made that they were partial to the whites, and that they could be 



"Report of the Sec. of War, 39 Cong., 2 Sess.. p. 719; Ex. Docs., 39 
Cong., 1 Sess., No. 11, pp. 22, 23. 

" Sen. Docs., 39 Cong., 2 Sess., Vol. 1, No. 6, p. 116. 

" Schurz, Report, 17, 18. 

'"" McPherson, Political Manual, 1866, pp. 34-36. Reynolds, Reconstruc- 
tion in S. C, 27-31. 

80 McPherson, Political Manual, 1866, pp. 36-38. Cox. Three Decades, 
416. 

01 By military courts is meant hoth the army and bureau courts. 



The Frkkdmkx's Bureau in South Carolina 111 

bribed to do whatever the planters wished. 82 Southern testimony 
presents a picture of unprecedented disregard of the Anglo-Sax- 
on's claim to a fair trial. Numerous instances air given of the 
arrest and imprisonment of worthy citizens upon the single state- 
ment of a negro. The following are a few examples of eviden 
against the bureau given by Southerners: Colonel Brooks of 
Columbia, tells that his father, who in 1866 was living in Ivlge- 
field County, was arrested and, without being given time to put 
on his shoes, was made to walk barefoot half a mile. He asked 
why he was arrested, and the only answer given was that he had 
just entertained at dinner a young man who the day before "had 
a fuss" with a negro woman. When the crops were under cul- 
tivation the negroes frequently struck for higher wages, and 
nothing but the intervention of the freedmen's bureau could in- 
duce them to return. "That inducement could only be effected 
by the planter or farmer paying to the agent from ten to twenty 
dollars per head. This sum was simply a perquisite of the 
agent, and when paid, the negro always returned to his labors, 
though not receiving a cent of additional compensation. It was 
frequently the case that the same planter or farmer would have 
to compensate the bureau agent two or three times during one 
year, or else lose his crops." A negro lodged complaint against 
his employer. The officer received a gallon of whiskey from the 
defendant and called the matter settled. It is charged that the 
bureau agents fined the planters in accordance with what they 
thought they could get from them, and that they would even 
whip the negroes if paid to do so by the planters. 83 

In contrast to the preceding is the report from the acting 
sistant commissioner for the bureau district of Charleston: 
judicious has been the administration of justice by the officers on 
duty in this district that applications are frequently made by 
whites that their differences may he heard and adjudicated by the 



:,s Report of Joint Committee on Reconstruction. Part II.. p. 225. An- 
drews, The South Since the War, 203. 

\ffairs in the Late Insurrection.^, 
of the Committee, pp. 441. 44_> ; The Witi-mal Republi I in 

Charleston Daily Courier, July 9, 1866; Private letters ii of the 

writer. 



112 Smith College Studies in History 

sub-assistant commissioners, they having more confidence in the 
military civic courts than in their own local magistrates." 34 The 
truth is that everything depended upon the character of the in- 
dividual agents and officers. Were they wise and just, their de- 
cisions received the respect of both contending parties; but if 
they themselves were unscrupulous, the frauds committed by 
them brought odium and disgrace upon the whole system. 

In October, 1866, civil law was restored in South Carolina, 
except on the sea islands and the military reservation at Hilton 
Head. 35 This resulted in many complaints of injustice toward 
the negro, especially in cases where the whites had broken their 
contracts. The freedmen were prevented from taking their cases 
to the state courts, for the law required every plaintiff to give 
bond for twice the amount for which he sued. It was reported 
that no magistrate "would bind over a white man for trial for 
the perpetration of any outrage, however villainous, unless the 
freedman complaining against him would give security to the 
amount of $200 or $300. 3,! Usually the negroes were unable to 
meet these conditions. Officers advised the re-establishment of 
military and bureau courts, and in some instances this was done. 37 
After the passage of the civil rights bill, April 9, 1866, freedmen 
were privileged to sue in United States Courts in all cases where 
there was discrimination because of race, color, or previous con- 
dition of servitude. 38 

1 laving seen how cases between whites and blacks were ad- 
judicated, let us return to the subject of contracts. Although 
those formed for the year 1865 did not on the whole prove suc- 
cessful, the freedmen's bureau and most of the planters were 
anxious for the negroes to contract for the following year. But 
the freedmen, almost with one accord, refused to bind themselves 
to the planters. Doubtless this attitude was largely due to their 



34 Sen. Docs., 39 Cong., 2 Sess., Vol. 1. No. 6. p. 118; Schurz. Report. 48. 
■ Report of the Sec of War. 39 Con-.. _' Sess., p. 738; Sen. Docs., 39 
Cong., 2 Sess., Vol. 1, No. 6, p. 117. 

"Ibid., 123; Report of tin- Sec. of War.. 40 Cong., 2 Sess., pp. 669. 670. 
• Ibid., 670-(.7_\ 
M Statutes at Large, XIV., 27-29. 



Tiik Frkkdmkx's IU-rkal- in South Caroui 113 

expectation that land would be given them at Christmas or New 
Year's. 39 Saxton, in a general circular, tried t" corred the im- 
pression, and called upon the freedmen to enter into contracts 
at once."' 

Three kinds of contracts were adopted in South Carolina: 
agreements that the negroes should work for regular wagi 
agreements that they should work for the planters for a share of 
the crop, and agreements in which the planter furnished the land 
and equipment, the renter paving a portion of the crop. The 
first system was used by most of the Northern immigrants and 
by a few Southerners with ready money at command. 11 It 
proved the most satisfactory to both parties. The last mentioned 
plan was largely confined to the sea islands, and was reported as 
not successful. 42 The Darlington planters met in December and 
adopted a form of contract which received the approval both of 
Saxton and of the Sumter, Kershaw and Clarendon planters. 
This provided that the freedmen should receive one-third of the 
crop, and contained many of the regulations for the government 
of the negro found in the black code. 43 This contract was not 
accepted readily by the freedmen, with the result that the New 
Year opened with hut few agreements as- to labor. 

Much confusion followed. Some negroes, who refused to 
work for the terms offered, remained on the plantations and v. 
a constant drain upon the planters' supplies. I Ithers, ejected 
from their former homes, became vagrants or beneficiaries of the 
bureau's bounty. There was great need of a controlling influ- 
ence. January 8, 1866, Saxton issued an order forbidding plan- 

3a Ex. Docs., 39 Cong., 1 Sess., No. 11. p. 26; Vndr •■ -. I" South 
Since the War, 221, 222; Report of Joint Committee on Reconstruct! 
Part II., p. 229. 

40 Ex. Docs., 39 Cong., 1 Sess., No. 70, p. 95. 

"The rate of wages varied greatly, ranging from $20 a year with no 
rations to $180 with rations. See foot notes below. 

"The Nation, I.. 393 (Sept. 28, 1865) ; Sen. Docs.. 39 Coi 
Vol. 1. No. 6, p. 123; Charleston £>rti'/.v Courier, Jan. 5, 1866; Report of 
Joint Committee on Reconstruction. Part II.. p. 234. 

"See Appendix A following for a copy of the contract. The I 
ton form of contract was later repudiate. 1 by Saxton. B -i Joint 

Committee on Reconstruction, Part II., p. 240. 



114 Smith CoixEge Studies in History 

ters to remove freedmen from their plantations unless the latter 
had refused to enter into "fair and reasonable contracts." Xo 
freedman could be removed without the consent of an agent of 
the bureau. 44 Saxton's order was supplemented by one from 
General Sickles, dated January 23. This forbade a freedman to 
remain on a plantation if he had refused to work there "after 
having been offered employment by the owner or lessee on fair 
terms, approved by the agent of the freedmen's bureau." It also 
provided that vagrants should be put to work on public roads and 
fortifications, or be hired out to labor for a period of one year. 45 
This order was commended by the Charleston Daily News, which 
reported on January 25 that the negroes in the upper districts had 
generally gone to work, and that on the seaboard they showed 
more readiness to enter into contracts. 

When Scott became assistant commissioner for South Caro- 
lina, he repudiated the Darlington contract and recommended one 
which differed from it in the following respects: Freedmen 
were not to invite visitors upon the premises, nor to absent them- 
selves from the same during working hours, without consent. 
Freedmen were to perform reasonable daily tasks ten hours a 
day, unless the weather was such as actually to forbid labor, or 
they were excused by the employer. In such cases there 
were to be no deductions. If absent more than three days with- 
out leave, unless on account of sickness or other unavoidable 
cause, a freedman should be subject to dismissal from the planta- 
tion, and forfeiture of his or her share of the crop. The em- 
ployer, however, should pay the party dismissed $5.00 a month 
for full hands, deducting advances. Neither party should sell or 
use any portion of the crop until alter division of the same, with- 
out the consent of the other parly, and each employee should be 
provided with a pass book in which entries of advances, ab- 
sences, etc., should be kept. Each head of a family should be 
allowed one-half acre of land for his own use; quarter-acre tracts 
being alloted to all others. Employees should not be compelled 



** Report of Joint Committee on Reconstruction, Part II., p. 229. 
48 Charleston Daily Courier, January 24, 1866. 



Tiik Frkkdmhx's Bureau in South Carolina US 

to work upon the Fourth of July, Christmas, New Year's, nation- 
al and state Thanksgiving and fast days, unless the work to be 
done was a work of necessity or mercy. No deduction should he 
made for not working on these days. Female employees who 
were heads of families were required to work only one-half day 
on Saturdays. 40 A comparison of these terms with those of the 
Darlington contract, found in Appendix A, will show that Scott 
annulled the most objectionable provisions of that document. 

By May, 1866, the assistant commissioner reported that the 
negroes "had entered into contracts with a willingness and unan- 
imity beyond the expectation of the most sanguine persons in the 
State. . . Planters asserted that in most cases they were 'doing 
more work than wa§ ever done under the old system of forced 
labor.' " 47 However, reports of outrages were numerous, espec- 
ially from Barnwell, Edgefield, Newberry, Laurens and Chester 
districts. There, mounted bands of "regulators" rode about the 
country terrifying the negroes, and committing many acts of 
cruelty and depredation toward freedmen and northern win 
It was reported that they had made an offer to the planters that 
upon the payment of a fixed sum per head they would kill any 
freedmen who would not contract. 48 The condition was so bad 
that for a time General Sickles contemplated the removal to 
Columbia of the entire negro population from Edgefield, New- 
berry and Laurens. The citizens of that section of the state 
affirmed that the regulators were men from Kentucky. Tennessee 
and Texas who had been in the southern army, and who were 
prevented by their crimes from returning home. 1 '' 

The results in 1866 were not satisfactory. Severe drought 
had greatly damaged the crops. The corn crop upon which the 
people largely depended for food was reported as an titter fail- 



48 Weekly Record, February 10, 1866. 

47 Report of the Sec. of War, 39 Cong., 2 Sgps., p. 737. 

48 Sen. Docs., 39 Cong., 2 Sess., Vol. 1, No. 6. prr. 112, 113. 

49 Report of Joint Committee on Reconstruction. Part II.. p. 234 ; Char- 
leston Daily Courier, March 21, 1866; Philadelphia Enquirer. March 16, 
1866; New York Times, June 13, 1866; The Steedman-b'ulUrton Report; 
Newberry Herald, March 14, 1866, as quoted in Charleston Daily Courier. 
March 24, 1866. 



116 Smith College Studies in History 

lire/"' The acting assistant commissioner for Sumter, Darling- 
ton, Chesterfield, Marlborough and Marion reported that in his 
district contracts had generally been regarded by both parties. 51 
On James Island it was estimated that the freedmen would realize 
about $300 each for the year's work."' 2 With the exceptions 
given above, the outlook at the close of the year was discourag- 
ing. Contracts had been broken, many of both races were actual- 
ly destitute, violence and outrages against the negroes were of 
common occurrence, and there was much ill-feeling on all sides. 
This condition of affairs was largely attributed by officers of the 
bureau to the restoration of civil law. 53 

Before the contracts for 1866 had expired, the freedmen of 
South Carolina became possessed of the desire to emigrate. June 
21, President Johnson had signed an act by which public land was 
opened to settlement. 54 The Nation reports that thousands of 
negroes, especially from the interior and northern districts of 
North Carolina, emigrated to Florida, Louisiana, Texas, and 
Liberia, and that many of them had abandoned plantations which 
they had bound themselves by contracts to cultivate. Those 
who settled on the public lands were promised six months' ra- 
tions after their arrival. Others went on contracts which secured 
to them from six to twelve dollars a month."' 5 

The decreasing supply of labor resulted in the spring of 1867 
in more liberal contracts. Greater kindness 56 and consideration 
on the part of the planters were reported. The crops for the 
year were greatly damaged by wet weather and the caterpillar, 
so that the returns were most inadequate. "The offices of agents 
were thronged with planters and freedmen calling upon them to 
settle differences and divide crops," ami in many instances the 



50 Sen. Docs., 39 Cong., 2 Sess.. Vol. 1. No. 6. pp. 113, 114. US; Report 
of the Six-, of War, 39 Cong., - Sess., p. 737. 

Sen. Docs.. 39 Cong., 2 Sess., Vol. 1. Xo. 6. pp. 11". 120. 
Sen. Does.. 39 Cong., 2 Sess., Vol. 1. Xo. 6. p. IIS. 
: ' Report of the Sec. of War, 40 Cong.. 2 Sess.. pp. 669-07J. 
•"' Statutes at Large, XIV.. 66, 67. 

"Sen. Docs., 39 Cong.. 2 Sess., Vol. 1. Xo. 6. p. 123; The Nation, 
Vol. III. 203. 2<>.l. 311; Ibid., IV., 43. 143. 227. 

■'"■ Report of the Sec. of War, 40 Cong., 2 Sess., p. 670. 






The Freedmen's Bureau in South Carolina 117 

books of the planters showed that the negroes had spent their 
wages in advance. The price of cotton was so low that the 
planters were in debt as a result of the year's work. In the fol- 
lowing winter there was much suffering and special agents were 
sent out by the bureau to distribute supplies to the needy of 
both races. 57 

The report for 1868 shows improvement both in the terms of 
the contracts and in the manner in which they were kept. Poli- 
tics had begun to influence the relation between planters and 
laborers, and in some districts the land-owners formed clubs in 
which they agreed to hire no laborers whose vote they could not 
control. Nevertheless there were fewer cases of outrage than 
in the preceding year, and it was conceded that the freedmen 
were "doing better labor and with less trouble than at any prev- 
ious time since the emancipation." 58 After 1868, the bureau's 
supervision of labor ceased. 

The freedmen's bureau assumed control of another form of 
contract, marriages among the negroes. Before the war, the 
system of slavery had tended to promote great laxness in marital 
relations. Favorite slaves as a special favor were accorded a 
marriage ceremony, but in most cases an agreement between the 
contracting parties, sanctioned by the master, was deemed suffi- 
cient. The relationship so easily assumed, was as easily broken, 
and but little idea of the sacredness of the marriage bond was 
known to the negroes. 59 The coming of freedom had tended to 
complicate an already disordered condition. Negroes found 
themselves free to renew former marriages which had been term- 
inated by the sale of one of the contracting parties. In many in- 
stances one man had two or more living wives, each of whom in 
turn had more than one husband. This was the problem which 
confronted the freedmen's bureau, and which it endeavored to 

solve. 

Saxton was deeply impressed with the importance of promot- 



57 Howard, Report, Oct. 24. 1868, pp. 27, 28. 

58 Ibid., 27. 

68 Report of the Sec. of War, 40 Cong., 3 Sess., Vol. 1. p. 1041. 



118 Smith College Studies in History 

ing proper domestic relationships among the negroes. In his first 
circular to the freedmen he called upon them to lead virtuous 
lives and to "stud} - , in church and out of it, the rules of the mar- 
riage relation issued from these headquarters." 00 The following 
are some of the rules to which he referred: Parties living to- 
gether as husband and wife at the time of emancipation were 
acknowledged as legally married, but they were required to have 
their marriage confirmed by a minister (if it had not already 
been done) and to obtain from him a certificate. Ministers were 
authorized to charge one dollar each for these certificates. When 
a negro, living alone at the time of emancipation, had a former 
wife restored to him by freedom, he was charged to receive her 
as his lawful wife. In case there were two or more such wiveSj 
only one of whom had borne him children, the mother of his 
children should be received by him.' ;1 Where the claims of 
different wives were equal, the presumption is that he could 
choose between them. Chaplain J. H. Fowler was appointed by 
Saxton to carry out the foregoing order in South Carolina and 
Georgia. 02 Later on, the work in South Carolina was intrusted 
to the Reverend Mansfield French. 63 Clergymen were instructed 
to make a return to the bureau of all marriages solemnized by 
them, and a careful registration was kept/' 

At first there was some confusion and excitement among the 
negroes, especially in cases where a man had to choose between 
two or more wives. The requirement of a money payment for 
certificates which they were forced to obtain caused considerable 
inconvenience to the negroes, and criticism from the southern 
whites. 66 But on the whole this department of the bureau's 
work was beneficial, bringing order out of the chaos of confused 
domestic relationships, and stimulating the freedmen to purer 
habits of life. 

[to bk continued in number hi] 

■"Report of Joinl Committee on Reconstruction. Tart II., p. 231. 
" Kx. Docs..>< Con-.. 1 Sess., No. 70, it. 108-111. 
Ibid., p. 117. 

Sen. I) M s., 39 Cong., J S< ss., Vol. 1. No. 6, pp. 124, 125. 
Ex. Docs., 39 Cong., 1 Sess., No. 11. pp. 23, 45. 
Affairs in the Late insurrectional - ) Stairs. 42 Con-.. 2 Sess.; Report 
of the Committee, p. 442. 



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